SNP's Links To News International Questioned

Labour is urging the SNP to answer questions about its links with News International, in the wake of the phone hacking scandal.

The party has published a list of 25 questions, including asking when First Minister Alex Salmond last met with James Murdoch, News International chairman, as well as how much the SNP has spent on advertising with the company in the past four years.

Labour's business manager Paul Martin said: "There are a lot of unanswered questions over the SNP's links with News International.

"Throughout the entire phone hacking scandal Alex Salmond has ditched his usual megaphone diplomacy and has been uncharacteristically silent.

"Alex Salmond has desperately attempted to come across as whiter than white by keeping schtum and resorting to his default position of blaming Westminster.

"He would clearly rather we all ignored the fact that he personally met with James Murdoch, wined and dined the editor of the Scottish News of the World and provided free articles and advertising to News International newspapers worth thousands of pounds.

"If the SNP have nothing to hide then Alex Salmond must speak out and convince the public there has been no quid pro quo for Rupert Murdoch's support of the SNP."

An SNP spokesman hit back at the claims, saying: "This is embarrassing nonsense from Paul Martin - he obviously doesn't let the facts get in the way of a bad press release.

"For example, the First Minister was on record at a press conference last week calling on Rebekah Brooks to step down, and also gave numerous broadcast interviews supporting the Commons motion - of which the SNP was a co-sponsor - calling on News Corp's BSkyB bid to be withdrawn.

"Instead of engaging in smear, the key question Paul Martin has to answer is why the last Labour government did precisely nothing about the Operation Motorman report published by the Information Commissioner in 2006, revealing over 3,000 cases of a range of newspapers breaking data protection laws."