SNP’s digital supremo: My meeting with data-row firm
THE former head of the SNP’s digital campaign has revealed he was the consultant who met data harvesting firm Cambridge Analytica.
Kirk Torrance, who devised the SNP’s social media strategy and led the party’s digital election battle under Alex Salmond in 2011 and Nicola Sturgeon in 2016, confirmed he met the controversial firm ‘on behalf of’ the party.
He mentioned only one meeting, in February 2016 in the run-up to the Holyrood election and the EU referendum, when the company worked for the Leave campaign.
But a former director of the company insisted in the House of Commons last week that there were ‘several’ meetings.
Mr Torrance has been a well-known face at SNP HQ for years and was pivotal in setting up its strategy for using online tools directly to target voters who may switch. He worked as a party employee in the 2011 campaign, then as a consultant in 2015 and 2016.
The revelation that he was involved adds new pressure on Miss Sturgeon’s husband, SNP chief executive Peter Murrell, to reveal whether he was aware of the meeting.
He has been summoned by the party’s MPs to answer questions about the matter as nobody informed Westminster leader Ian Blackford about its involvement with Cambridge Analytica, despite him repeatedly raising questions about the involvement of other parties.
Miss Sturgeon has also raised concerns about the involvement of others with the firm in recent weeks. But her spokesman said last week she only learned about the meeting when it was mentioned at the culture committee in the House of Commons on Tuesday.
In a statement issued last night, Mr Torrance said: ‘I’d like to commend the SNP for their professionalism and decency in respecting my confidence as a consultant contractor.
‘However, I can confirm that I met Cambridge Analytica on February 18, 2016, on behalf of the SNP.
‘My recommendation was to not touch the firm with a barge pole, as they were a bunch of cowboys. From what is known now about Cambridge Analytica, I am glad the SNP took my advice.’
Last week, Brittany Kaiser, a former director of Cambridge Analytica, told the culture committee that the firm took part in ‘pitches and negotiations’ with the SNP in London and Edinburgh.
Miss Sturgeon insisted there was one meeting between a consultant acting for the party and representatives of the company, in February 2016.
Scottish Labour campaigns spokesman Neil Findlay said: ‘Now it’s been revealed that former SNP digital guru Kirk Torrance met with Cambridge Analytica on the party’s behalf, it is time for the SNP to come clean on this whole murky affair.
‘There has been no transparency around this, despite what Nicola Sturgeon might claim – proven by the fact her husband and SNP chief executive Peter Murrell has been summoned by SNP MPs to tell them the facts – after they were left red-faced in the Commons when SNP involvement with Cambridge Analytica was first revealed.
‘The SNP now needs to disclose any documentation around these meetings between Mr Torrance and Cambridge Analytica, including what campaign they related to, who commissioned Mr Torrance and which politician, if any, had oversight of his work and his report.’