THE SNP has been accused of a “grotesque” exploitation of the Alex Salmond affair to recruit new members.

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar levelled the charge at Nicola Sturgeon after her party boasted about an influx of members following her testimony about a sexual misconduct probe into her predecessor.

The First Minister was widely regarded as making an impressive appearance at the Holyrood inquiry into the Salmond affair.

On March 4, the day after Ms Sturgeon’s eight hours of evidence to MSPs, the SNP twice promoted social media messages welcoming new recruits.

In the first Twitter message, accompanied by a bespoke graphic, the SNP said it had “5,000 new and rising SNP members”, adding: “If you haven’t yet, sign up today at snp.org”.  

Later that day, the party updated its message, saying: “It’s 7,600 new members now and growing."

Prior to that, the party, which is run by Ms Sturgeon’s husband Peter Murrell, hadn’t used its Twitter account to discuss its membership numbers since September 2018, and hadn't welcome new members since June 2018.

The Salmond affair started with two female civil servants complaining they had been sexually harassed by the former first minister while he was in office.

He took the Scottish Government to court and haad the process set aside as it was "tainted by apparent bias".

The Holyrood inquiry report into the fiasco today included tesimony from the two complainers saying they had been "dropped" and "left to swim" by the Government.

In a debate before a Tory-led no confidence motion in the First Minister over her actions during the Salmond affair, Mr Sarwar raised the SNP membership issue in light of the grave issues at stake.

READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon survives no confidence vote in Holyrood over Salmond affair

He said: “The harassment policy failed and two women were let down. 

“That has shaken trust in the system and risked discouraging victims from coming forwards. 

“The situation has called into question the integrity of Government, it has undermined the principles of transparency and accountability, and it has seen a misuse of public money. “There are huge failures and big questions to be answered.

“There are no winners in this debate. The SNP is not a winner in it. 

“The spectacle of using a harassment inquiry as a recruiting tool was grotesque.”

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie echoed the criticism.

He said: “Scottish politics today does not look pretty, with talk of lynching and assassination; the leaking of the private evidence of complainants; the lodging of motions of no confidence even before all the evidence has been heard; the attacking of a committee because it does not agree with the First Minister; the lauding of the performance of Nicola Sturgeon because she talked to a committee for eight hours - as if the show is more important than the facts; and the boasting about recruiting new members on the back of this tragedy. 

“No one wins from this ugly episode - not the First Minister, not [Scottish Tory leader] Douglas Ross and certainly not Alex Salmond, who has been exposed for what he really is.”

Responding, deputy First Minister John Swinney apologised for the Government’s mistakes, and accused the Tories of demeaning parliament.

He quoted a Tweet from Glasgow Tory MSP Adam Tomkins on the day before Ms Sturgeon testified which said “Sturgeon lied. We know that now. That’s why she must resign. She lied.”

READ MORE: Tom Gordon - No lazy hatchet job, this report is a devastating catalogue of errors

Mr Swinney said: “Ruth Davidson talked about high standards. I have to say that I find that tweet the lowest standard I have ever seen in my Parliamentary life. 

“Throughout all my days of dealing with the First Minister, I have always known that I was dealing with an individual of integrity, character, responsibility and devotion to serving the people of this country."

“She has given every ounce of her energy to protect the people of this country over these past trying 12 months of Covid. 

“She has done everything that she can to protect the public, and the last thing that she deserves is this grubby motion from the Conservatives.”

The no confidence motion was defeated by 65 votes to 31, with 27 abstentions.