Former Scottish secretary Alistair Carmichael has hit back at claims that hundreds of thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money was used to fund “anti-SNP propaganda” ahead of the election.
The UK Government approved £2.5million for a public information campaign on devolution and the Smith Commission proposals in January.
Transparency data released by the Cabinet Office last month revealed the figure, of which just under £800,000 was spent.
SNP Westminster leader Angus Robertson has now written to the now Scottish secretary David Mundell demanding he explain the rationale for the timing of the expenditure and the release date of the campaign.
In his letter he also asks the Tory minister to explain why the UK government justified the cost at a time of continuing austerity.
Moray MP Mr Robertson said: “It is … astonishing that they set aside five times as much on propaganda north of the border compared to what they did on a campaign to maximise voter registration – despite being just weeks before a general election.
“This perhaps says it all about the priorities of the UK government.
“As Alistair Carmichael was then Secretary of State for Scotland, this raises further questions about the conduct of the Scotland Office while he was at the helm.”
But Mr Carmichael, who is facing a legal challenge to his re-election over the Frenchgate memo, in turn questioned the SNP’s timing.
He said: “There is nothing new in this. This has been in the public domain – it was put in the public domain by the coalition government.
“The problem for Mr Robertson in all this is that he conveniently forgets that the SNP government in Edinburgh spent substantial sums of public money publicising their so-called white paper and indeed sending leaflets to every home in Scotland.
“I suspect that the real point to the SNP raising this at this time is that they hope to distract attention from the continued fall in oil prices which fatally undermined their economic case for independence.”
A UK government spokesman said all materials supporting the public information campaign were cleared through government lawyers and went through the usual authorisation processes prior to publication.
The campaign was evaluated against guidelines on spending and value for money, he added, and timed to address concerns raised within the Smith Commission report.