NICOLA Sturgeon has claimed the SNP has shown “complete transparency” over its contact with Cambridge Analytica, the data firm at the heart of the Facebook privacy row.
The First Minister made the claim despite refusing to say which year one of her party’s consultants met Cambridge Analytica (CA), or who was involved.
In her first public comment on the controversy, she also called the firm “a bunch of shysters” and stressed the SNP, unlike other parties, had chosen not to work with them.
Scottish Labour said Ms Sturgeon appeared "detached from reality".
The SNP was accused of “jaw-dropping hypocrisy” yesterday after it emerged it had contact with CA, despite demanding full transparency from other parties over their links.
Watch: Cambridge Analytica held meetings with SNP, claims former director
The firm is embroiled in a transatlantic scandal over allegations it amassed the social media information of up to 87m Facebook users without permission to target voters.
Brittany Kaiser, a former program director at CA, revealed the SNP contact at a Westminster committee meeting in response to a question from SNP MP Brendan O’Hara.
She said: “I do know that we have been in pitches and negotiations with UK parties in the past, such as the SNP. 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 accused of hypocrisy after failing to disclose meeting with Cambridge Analytica
The SNP’s headquarters are a few minutes’ walk from the Scottish Parliament.
Ms Kaiser also told MPs she would check old emails to give the committee more information.
After her claims, the SNP admitted there had been a single contact, but refused to answer any questions about when it took place, or who took part.
A spokesperson for the party said: "The SNP has never worked with Cambridge Analytica. An external consultant had one meeting in London. His assessment was that they were 'a bunch of cowboys', which turned out to be true. No further meetings were held."
Ms Sturgeon was asked for more detail as she left a meeting at Holyrood at lunchtime.
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.”
But she refused to name the year the meeting took place, or identify the party’s consultant, before walking away into the ministerial block of the parliament.
The disclosure from Ms Kaiser also exposed a breakdown in communication between SNP HQ, which is run by Ms Sturgeon’s husband Peter Murrell, and the party’s MPs.
Labour MSP Neil Findlay today wrote to Mr Murrell asking for more information about the party’s meeting or meetings with CA.
He asked for the identity of the consultant, the type of work they performed for the SNP, which campaign the contact concerned, why SNP HQ commissioned the consultant, which politicians oversaw their work, and any documents related to the SNP’s dealings with CA.
Responding to Ms Sturgeon's "complete transparency" remark, Mr Findlay 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."
Blunder by SNP HQ adds to tensions with MPs
Tory MSP Jackson Carlaw said: “The SNP cannot bury their heads in the sand on this.
These are serious allegations and imply that they held secret discussions with Cambridge Analytica despite rushing to point the finger at others when the story first broke.
“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?
"In evidence to the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee 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.”
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