LABOUR has called for an investigation into the role played by one of Alex Salmond's aides in the offer to lobby for tycoon Rupert Murdoch.
The Scottish Government's top civil servant will be asked to probe whether special adviser Geoff Aberdein broke any rules by putting the First Minister's offer to News Corp.
Salmond is also under pressure after the LibDems revealed he had failed to publish details of a meeting with a Murdoch executive.
James Kelly, Labour's Holyrood chief whip, will now write to Permanent Secretary Sir Peter Housden about Aberdein's role.
UK Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt's adviser, Adam Smith, resigned last week over his cosy relationship with Murdoch executives.
Kelly said: "In his resignation statement Smith said that he had exceeded his boss's authority with his claims to the Murdochs so he quit.
"In evidence to the Leveson Inquiry, it was heard that Aberdein told the Murdochs that Salmond would lobby the UK Government on the Murdochs' behalf whenever they wanted him to. Salmond denied that was the case. If the First Minister is to be believed that means that Aberdein exceeded his authority yet he hasn't resigned.
Kelly will ask Housden if Aberdein has breached "strict rules" imposed on special advisers, who are hired to give ministers political advice.
The Scottish Government has also been accused of withholding details of links with News Corp executives.
Last September, the Government released information relating to all meetings between Scottish ministers and senior Murdoch officials.
The LibDems say the list omitted any reference to the meeting between Aberdein and Frederic Michel in February 2011.
Willie Rennie, the LibDem leader, said: "We need to know why the SNP did not disclose the meetings of special advisers when LibDems made that specific request. This is a test of just how open and transparent the SNP are willing to be over their dealings with Murdoch."
Meanwhile, Salmond yesterday described his relationship with Murdoch as "good and business-like" as he tried to fend off criticisms of his links to the media magnate.
Asked about his relationship with Murdoch, Salmond told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "I think he is one of the most substantial figures in journalism for the last 50 years so it would strike me as important to have a good and business-like relationship with him. He also, in BSkyB at least, employs 6200 in Scotland. I want to have a good and professional relationship, I think that's the best way to describe it."
Salmond's claim that his meetings with Murdoch's executives were jobs-related has also been questioned. At First Minister's Questions, Salmond said one of the issues discussed with James Murdoch was the prospect of a "huge number of jobs" coming to Glasgow through a BSkyB shake-up of its contractors.
However, it has emerged that the vast bulk of the "new" jobs created by HEROtsc had been transferred from another firm in the city.
A Scottish Government spokesman said: "Contact between Mr Aberdein and News Corp representatives has been within the Special Adviser Code of Conduct – we will respond to the letter once it has been received."
On Rennie's criticism, the spokesman added: "Last year's FOI actually asked for information about all Scottish Government officials, who number in the thousands, which is not what Mr Rennie is referring to here. A series of parliamentary questions on these issues has been tabled, and will be properly answered in the normal way. We have already gone further than the UK Government by also publishing correspondence with News Corp, as well as meetings – and Labour leaders have had 19 meetings with Rupert Murdoch since May 2007 and David Cameron 18, compared to just five for Alex Salmond."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article