Alex Salmond has been accused of trying to "seduce" Rupert Murdoch and News International after it emerged that he offered the media baron a series of gifts and has met him or his executives 25 times since becoming Scotland's first minister.
Labour's Scottish leader, Iain Gray, said Salmond was guilty of "highly questionable behaviour", adding: "What is now clear is Alex Salmond has waged a four-year campaign since he became first minister to seduce Rupert Murdoch and News International, which has included gifts.
"It has been a top priority and he has spent more of his media time in the last year with News International than any other party leader in Britain."
In the latest set of ministerial disclosures in the News of the World hacking scandal, the Scottish government revealed that Salmond had met or spoken to Murdoch senior four times and his son James once since becoming first minister. The latest meeting with Murdoch senior was in June in London, shortly before the hacking scandal erupted.
Salmond's officials insisted the latest contacts with the Murdochs, including a private meeting with James Murdoch in London in January, were "perfectly proper and reasonable". They discussed BSkyB's investments in Scotland, where it employs 6,000 people and is one of Scotland's largest private employers.
Salmond's spokesmen did not deny that the first minister also discussed the significant political support for the SNP from the Sun and News of the World's Scottish editions in the run up to Salmond's landslide victory in the Holyrood elections in May. The titles are now Scotland's highest-selling papers.
Amongst 25 meetings with NI and News Corp executives since June 2007, Salmond met editors and executives from the Sun, NoW, Times, Sunday Times and Sky, including Rebekah Brooks in 2008when she was editor of the Sun. The frequency of those meetings increased sharply this year, before the Sun and NoW announced they were backing the SNP in March.
Pressed several times on whether the tabloids' editorial backing for the SNP was discussed at either meeting with the Murdochs, Salmond's spokesman said: "All I can say is, not to my knowledge."
He insisted that Salmond's lobbying of the Murdochs was to press for increasing BSkyB investment and jobs, and to highlight his government's transport investments. This year the broadcaster has added a further 150 jobs in Scotland.
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