ONE hit him with a verbal broadside, the other lavished him with praise.

But for different reasons Alex Salmond was feeling the heat yesterday over his relationships with two powerful businessmen.

He supported Donald Trump's plans to build a £1 billion golf resort in Aberdeenshire, even sharing a meal with him in an exclusive New York restaurant.

But yesterday the American tycoon accused Mr Salmond of "luring" him to invest in Scotland with false assurances that a proposed offshore wind farm visible from the course would never go ahead.

And he went on to attack Mr Salmond's enthusiasm for green energy, branding wind farms inefficient, ugly, noisy and dangerous.

But it was the generous words of Rupert Murdoch which may turn out to be more damaging to the First Minister.

Just hours after Mr Salmond was accused of offering to lobby UK Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt on Mr Murdoch's behalf, the media mogul told the Leveson Inquiry of the pair's "warm" relationship.

He went on to describe the First Minister as "an attractive person" and "an amusing guy", and also claimed one meeting he had with Mr Salmond "might have been to apologise because we reduced Sky's employment number quite dramatically in Scotland".

Mr Salmond's political opponents seized on the comments as evidence that his relationship had become overly cosy with the chairman of News Corp, parent company of the News of the World, which Mr Murdoch closed down over the phone hacking scandal.

Johann Lamont, Scottish Labour leader, said: "It's not just the cosy relationship between Salmond and Murdoch that is concerning, it's the toe-curling lengths the First Minister appears he will go to in order to please him.

"After the shocking Milly Dowler hacking case, it seemed that every politician had learned that Murdoch is bad news. Everyone, it seems, except Alex Salmond."

Mr Salmond said any assistance he would have given to Mr Murdoch would have been in the interests of Scottish jobs, adding: "I shall be delighted to go along to the Leveson Inquiry and explain why it is our responsibility to advocate jobs and investment for Scotland."

But Ms Lamont added: "The First Minister's words and actions don't add up. On Tuesday, he said that he supported Mr Murdoch's takeover of Sky to get more jobs in Scotland. Twenty-four hours later, Rupert Murdoch told the Leveson Inquiry that he met Salmond to apologise for axing jobs in Scotland.

"What is Salmond hiding? It is clear from two days of evidence to the Leveson Inquiry that he offered himself up to the Murdoch family to be a lobbyist for their bid to take over BSkyB. One day he denies it. The next day he admits he tried to. What will come tomorrow?"

Ms Lamont also issued a joint statement with Ruth Davidson, leader of the Scottish Conservatives, and LibDem leader Willie Rennie saying: "Alex Salmond must tell us whether or not he offered to lobby the UK Government on behalf of the Murdoch family and News Corp with regard to their proposed takeover of BSkyB.

"It is an affront to Scottish democracy that while the Culture Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, MP, is making a statement on the matter, the First Minister refuses to make a statement to the Scottish Parliament at Holyrood. The First Minister cannot be allowed to treat the Scottish Parliament as second class. In the interests of Scottish democracy and in the interests of the Scottish people we call upon the First Minister to make a statement to the Scottish Parliament, today."

Mr Salmond headed to London yesterday to give a speech to the Institute of Directors, but he is expected to be grilled over his relationship with Mr Murdoch in Holyrood today at First Minister's Questions.

It also emerged yesterday that the aide of Mr Salmond referred to in an internal News International email was adviser Geoff Aberdein.

Emails presented to the Levson Inquiry on Tuesday included one from News Corp's head of public affairs, Frederic Michel, to Mr Murdoch in February last year, which said: "I met with Alex Salmond's adviser today. He will call Hunt whenever we need him to."

The email was sent a week before another message from Mr Michel confirmed Mr Salmond had met the editor of the Scottish Sun – also owned by Mr Murdoch's company – for dinner and that the paper would back the SNP in last year's Scottish elections.

The revelations led to claims that Mr Salmond and Mr Murdoch had come to a quid pro quo arrangement.

But Mr Salmond yesterday denied this had been the case, saying he did not have the power to determine the outcome of the BSkyB bid.

"There was no quid pro quo because we were not in a position to deliver any quid pro quo," he added.