THE issue of Better Together's biggest donation coming from the boss of a controversial oil trading company has been raised for the second time on the floor of the chamber at Holyrood.
The SNP's Kenny Gibson raised the issue with Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon at General Questions.
He said: "Lord Ashdown, former UN high representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina is the latest figure to condemn the No campaign for accepting money from Tory donor Ian Taylor, given his allegedly close ties to Balkan war criminals. Does she share my concern that No campaign leader Alistair Darling's active defence of questionable donations is failing in the high standards people rightly expect of the referendum process?"
Ms Sturgeon said: "I believe that public confidence in the referendum process, including how the campaigns are financed, will be absolutely vital.
"The process proposed in the Bill that parliament will shortly consider will ensure that the referendum will be run to the highest standards of probity.
"The campaigns themselves have a responsibility to conduct themselves to a similarly high standard."
The pro-Union campaign is adamant it will not hand back the £500,000 from Mr Taylor, insisting that the donation is a perfectly valid contribution.
After Lord Ashdown's intervention, which was critical of the activities of companies such as Vitol and accepted that questions over the donation were legitimate, Scottish LibDem leader Willie Rennie came under the spotlight from Nationalists. The LibDems responded by saying: "Willie Rennie supports Ian Taylor's personal donation to Better Together."
Better Together said: "Despite the misleading headline, Paddy Ashdown did not condemn Ian Taylor's donation. The Nationalists are in such a mess at the moment that they are scrambling about looking for anything that will try and divert attention away from their crumbling case for separation."
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