Timeline: How drama unfolded
April 3, 9.36pm : Peter Dominiczak, the Daily Telegraph’s political editor, tweets the paper’s following morning’s front page with the message: “Exc. Nicola Sturgeon secretly backs David Cameron.” The splash headline reads: “Sturgeon’s secret backing for Cameron.” 9.47pm: Nicola Sturgeon sent a tweet, copied to the Telegraph’s Scottish political correspondent: “Your story is categorically, 100% untrue ... which I’d have told you if you’d asked me at any point today.” 11.02pm: Ms Sturgeon re-tweets reports from the French Consul General, Pierre-Alain Coffinier, who was present at the meeting between Ms Sturgeon and the French Ambassador Sylvie Bermann. Mr Coffinier had apparently told journalists “absolutely no preference was expressed” by the First Minister over who should be PM. 11.30pm: The First Minister is back on social media, re-tweeting when the BBC’s James Cook states on the micro-blogging site: “Spokesman for the French Ambassador tells me Nicola Sturgeon did not express a preference for next British PM or government.” April 4, 12.21am: Ms Sturgeon tweets the Telegraph: “Don’t you think you should update this story with the statements from both myself and the French Ambassador that it’s untrue?” April 5 Mr Carmichael tells BBC1’s Andrew Marr Show the memo originated from his department, saying the leak is “one of those things”. Later the senior LibDem tells Channel 4 News: “I’ve told you, the first I became aware of this, and this is already in the public record, was when I received a call on Friday afternoon from a journalist making me aware of it [the memo].”