SNP must come clean on its data talks

FULL of righteous indignation, sNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford rose in the Commons late last month to demand the Prime Minister ‘come clean’ on tory links with Cambridge Analytica.

this is the firm at the centre of a furore after it harvested data from 87million Facebook users to tout to politicians.

Nicola sturgeon also attempted to ascend the moral high ground, saying: ‘We haven’t hired them and to the best of my knowledge didn’t work with them.’

But now the Nationalists stand accused of hypocrisy after Brittany Kaiser, former Cambridge Analytica business development director, gave evidence to MPs.

Ironically, it was questions from the sNP’s Brendan O’hara which drew out the explosive revelation that the Nationalists held meetings with the data-row firm.

said Miss Kaiser: ‘I believe there were meetings that took place in London, where individuals came down to visit us in our Mayfair headquarters, and then further meetings were undertaken in edinburgh, near the parliament.’

how deeply embarrassing for the sNP and how deeply troubling for the public.

the sNP admits to only one meeting by a political consultant, but it is not possible to square that with Miss Kaiser’s clear evidence of multiple meetings with the party directly. so who is telling the truth?

And whether there was one meeting or more, what was being discussed? What services did the sNP think Cambridge Analytica could provide for it?

When did the secret meeting or meetings between the party and data harvesters occur – before or after rumblings of disquiet over political manipulation in the United states emerged?

the stench over this grubby situation grows. Nicola sturgeon simply must come clean on what her party was up to.