THE SNP’s Westminster leader has admitted he was left in the dark by his own party HQ about a secret contact with the tainted data firm Cambridge Analytica.
Ian Blackford, who has been pressing Theresa May about contacts with Cambridge Analytica (CA) for weeks, said he only learned about the SNP’s meeting with the same firm when it came out at a Westminster committee on Tuesday.
He said he regretted the meeting had taken place, but said it was “a matter for SNP HQ”, which is run by Peter Murrell, Nicola Sturgeon’s husband.
He also admitted he still didn’t know when or where the meeting had been held.
He refused to name the consultant, but suggested they may not have acted “entirely independently” of the SNP in taking the meeting with CA.
His comments coincided with Nicola Sturgeon insisting the SNP has shown "complete transparency" about its contact with CA, despite failing to provide details or inform its own MPs.
Sturgeon claims SNP "completely transparent" in data firm row
Former CA program director Brittany Kaiser told MPs that CA had made a sales pitch to the SNP in London, and that there had been a follow-up meeting in Edinburgh.
The SNP insists there was a single meeting with an external consultant, but has refused to identify the person or say when and where the meeting took place.
Mr Blackford saif Ms Kaiser was wrong in her assertions about multiple meetings.
He said he also “took comfort” in the fact the external consultant who took the meeting later dismissed CA as a “bunch of cowboys” and that no relationship had developed.
The Highland MP said: “I suppose when you move on from that what CA seem to be suggesting[is] that they have had meetings and dialogue with all political parties; so all of us have questions to answer in that regard; it’s not just the SNP.
“But I regret the fact that that meeting took place with a consultant but that’s how it was.”
SNP accused of hypocrisy after failing to disclose meeting with Cambridge Analytica
He explained he first heard about the consultant’s meeting when Ms Kaiser mentioned it.
He said: “Of course, we tried to examine our own records…. It would have been better if that information had been made available earlier but it is available now and it’s in the public domain.”
However, when Mr Blackford was pressed for details he admitted he did not know them.
Asked when had the meeting taken place, he replied: “I don’t know.”
Asked if he should know, Mr Blackford said it was a “matter for SNP HQ,” stressing it was not a formal meeting but one with a consultant.
Asked what year it had taken place, he replied: “I don’t know what the date is. I will endeavour to find out.”
Asked who the consultant was who had the meeting, he replied: “I know the names have not been put into the public domain and I’ll leave it at that.”
Pointing out how the person was a consultant, he stressed: “It’s not for me to put that name in the public domain and I won’t be doing so.”
Mr Blackford said the meeting with CA had been arranged by the consultant, not the SNP.
Asked if the consultant was, therefore, acting entirely independently, he replied: “Well, I’m not saying entirely independently. I’m not aware of all the circumstances. It is a matter for SNP HQ rather than myself.”
Blunder by SNP HQ adds to tensions with MPs
He admitted the leadership had “asked some questions” about the details of the meeting. “The information that I have given you is the information that I know.”
Asked if anyone had to scrape him off the ceiling when he learnt about the CA meeting, Mr Blackford said: “In an ideal world...No, I’ll leave it at that.”
Asked if he should know all the details about this, the party leader replied: “I am leader of the Westminster Group but I am not a party official. I understand I have an obligation to find out what has happened and that’s what I am doing and have been doing.”
He added that it was “obviously demonstrably the case” that when his SNP colleague Brendan O’Hara asked the question of Ms Kaiser about CA contacts with political parties, he was not expecting her to mention the SNP.
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