SNP ‘keen for more contact’ claims CA

The company at the heart of a Facebook data-mining controversy has hit back at a former SNP strategist who said they were “a bunch of cowboys” and “snake oil salesmen”.

Cambridge Analytica claimed the SNP was “very keen to maintain an association” following a meeting in February 2016. The comments are at odds with the account from the SNP and Kirk Torrance, the former digital strategist revealed on Monday as the SNP representative at the meeting. Company spokesman Clarence Mitchell told a press conference that Cambridge Analytica spoke with “two representatives of the SNP, and there was a subsequent series of phonecalls and email contact. The party … was very keen to maintain an association.

“They were interested in us developing a platform to help them manage their data, but it was put on hold because of the [EU] referendum. But for it to be suggested that we were dismissed as ‘cowboys’ and nothing further happened is not true.”

Labour MSP Neil Findlay said: “Enough is enough. The SNP must answer basic questions over its dealings with Cambridge Analytica.” An SNP spokesman responded that “attempts by Cambridge Analytica to follow up the meeting were not reciprocated”.