SNP pressed on data firm row as Sturgeon and Blackford at odds

Scottish Labour said Ms Sturgeon appeared "detached from reality".

In recent weeks, the SNP has demanded other parties disclose any contact with Cambridge Analytica (CA), which is linked to a privacy breach affecting up to 87m Facebook users.

READ MORE: Fight over post-Brexit powers nearing "end game", says Sturgeon

However on Tuesday, it emerged the SNP also had a previously secret sales pitch from the data firm, leading to opposition claims of “jaw dropping hypocrisy”.

Brittany Kaiser, a former CA program director, revealed the contact at a Westminster committee hearing in response to a question from SNP MP Brendan O’Hara.

She said: “I believe that there were meetings that took place in London where individuals came down from Edinburgh to visit us at our Mayfair headquarters, and then further meetings were undertaken in Edinburgh near the parliament."

SNP headquarters, which are run by Ms Sturgeon’s husband Peter Murrell, are a few minutes’ walk from the Scottish Parliament.

READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon claims SNP "completely transparent" in data firm row

Only after Ms Kaiser’s comments did the SNP confirm the contact with CA, but said it was limited to one meeting in London with an “external consultant”.

Ms Sturgeon was asked for more detail as she left a meeting at Holyrood yesterday.

She told The Herald: “There’s complete transparency. There was a meeting. We decided they were a bunch of shysters, unlike other people who didn’t and decided to work with them, and there was no further contact.”

However she then refused to name the year the meeting took place, or identify the party’s consultant, before walking away.

Analysis: Blunder by SNP HQ adds to tensions with MPs

Meanwhile at Westminster, Mr Blackford, who has twice asked Theresa May about contacts with CA at Prime Minister’s Questions, admitted he had still not been told all the facts.

He said he first learned about the meeting from Ms Kaiser’s evidence and regretted it had taken place, but said it was “a matter for SNP HQ”.

Asked if anyone had to scrape him off the ceiling, he said: “In an ideal world... No, I’ll leave it at that.”

He refused to name the consultant involved, but suggested they may not have acted “entirely independently” of the SNP in taking the meeting with CA.

The Highland MP said Ms Kaiser was wrong about multiple meetings and said CA approached many parties, not just the SNP.

“I regret the fact that that meeting took place with a consultant, but that’s how it was. It would have been better if that information had been made available earlier.”

Asked when the meeting took place, he replied: “I don’t know.”

Labour MSP Neil Findlay, who is demanding full disclosure from the SNP about its contact with CA, said: "Nicola Sturgeon sounds completely detached from reality.

"The SNP claim there was only one meeting with this company but refuse to name who represented the party at the meeting and when it happened.

"Nicola Sturgeon needs to answer these basic questions."

READ MORE: Fight over post-Brexit powers nearing "end game", says Sturgeon

Tory MSP Jackson Carlaw added: “The SNP cannot bury their heads in the sand. These are serious allegations and imply they held secret discussions with Cambridge Analytica despite rushing to point the finger at others.

“The pressure is mounting on the SNP to provide more information, and no amount of question dodging is going to get them out of this situation.”

A spokesperson for the SNP said: "The SNP has never worked with Cambridge Analytica at any point. The question the Tories and Labour must answer is – did they?

"On 28 February, Cambridge Analytica claimed to have pitched to every major political party in the UK. All that is known so far is that the LibDems and SNP rejected their sales pitch. Labour have said nothing, and the Tories have a multitude of different links to the firm. It’s now for these two parties to come clean about their links to Cambridge Analytica.”