THE disclosure that an SNP consultant took a sales pitch from the data firm Cambridge Analytica (CA) is not so surprising.

All parties have to put up with hawkers trying to lighten their wallets.

The SNP also declined CA’s services, though there is a dispute over whether it was interested enough to have a follow-up meeting.

Yet the evidence from former CA director Brittany Kaiser to a Westminster committee that there was a meeting is still deeply embarrassing for the party, as it now looks hypocritical and incompetent.

READ MORE: SNP accused of hypocrisy after failing to disclose meeting with Cambridge Analytica

Throughout the furore over CA and the Leave campaign, the SNP has repeatedly demanded full transparency from others about their CA contacts.

On March 20, MSP George Adam said the scandal raised questions about democracy and demanded Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson say what she knew about it.

“It’s no longer tenable for the Tories to stay silent about this - we need answers,” he said.

The next day, SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford pressed Theresa May at Prime Minister’s Questions about Tory party links to CA’s parent company, SCL.

READ MORE: SNP accused of hypocrisy after failing to disclose meeting with Cambridge Analytica

She must also disclose any other UK government contacts, he said.

A few days later, SNP MP Stephen Gethins repeated Mr Adam’s demand for openness verbatim.

Mr Blackford returned to the issue at the next PMQs, asking Mrs May for full details of links between the Tories, the DUP and CA in the EU referendum.

The “shady business of data mining” went right to the heart of her party, said.

However there has been no transparency from the SNP about its CA meeting.

Instead, the party only issued a curt two-line statement after Ms Kaiser’s evidence, then refused to respond to any questions.

READ MORE: SNP accused of hypocrisy after failing to disclose meeting with Cambridge Analytica

It’s evidently easier to demand answers from others than supply them.

But the most damaging aspect is the failure of SNP HQ to warn its own MPs about this particular skeleton in the closet.

It was the SNP MP Brendan O’Hara who elicited Ms Kaiser’s revelation, and the stunned look on his face showed it was clearly news to him.

Mr Blackford, who previously said he was “not aware” of any contact, has also been left looking a chump by his erstwhile colleagues in Edinburgh.

SNP HQ - run by Nicola Sturgeon’s husband, Peter Murrell - knew there had been contact with CA, yet the party’s MPs were allowed to run with the issue regardless.

READ MORE: SNP accused of hypocrisy after failing to disclose meeting with Cambridge Analytica

That is a remarkable and reckless omission.

There are already tensions between SNP MPs and what they refer to as “up the road”.

This episode will have made them much worse.