Row over SNP’S link to Cambridge Analytica escalates

The SNP were still interested in working with Cambridge Analytica six weeks after party representatives met the controversial company, correspondence released last night suggested.

Previously Nicola Sturgeon has claimed the SNP decided not to deal with the data harvesting firm after a meeting in February 2016.

Ms Sturgeon said a consultant working for the SNP had gone to the meeting and concluded that the company was run by a “bunch of cowboys”.

Last night the SNP released its email correspondence with the firm, which revealed the meeting took place on 18 February after the party had initiated contact. There was also a conference call ahead of the meeting. Six weeks later, an email from Cambridge Analytica sent to the party suggested the SNP was still interested in doing business.

In a tweet accompanying the release of the correspondence the SNP said the company “kept emailing and calling. We still didn’t reply and they wouldn’t take the hint”.

But the firm’s email dated 31 March said the SNP had just taken a phone call from Cambridge Analytica. It thanked the party for “discussing our potential co-operation in summer 2016; it was my pleasure to hear that you are still interested in working with SCL Group/cambridge Analytica.”

A Tory spokesman said: “When Cambridge Analytica’s affairs were first exposed, the SNP were the first to start throwing around accusations about other parties. But the more we have learned of their own involvement with the company the more their hypocrisy has become apparent.”