SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon has called for a civil service probe into what she branded the “100% untrue” memo about her conversation with the French ambassador.
She said she had spent her political life campaigning against the Tories, and said: “Anyone who knows anything about me knows I don’t want a Conservative government.”
Both the SNP and a spokesman for the French Ambassador have categorically denied that Sturgeon stated a preference for prime minister.
The First Minister said: “This story has already been shown to be 100 per cent untrue – having been comprehensively rejected by both the French Ambassador and Consul General.
“The real issue is how a second hand and inaccurate account of this meeting – which was not even attended by the UK government – came to be written by a UK Government civil servant and then leaked to Tory-supporting newspapers at the start of a General Election campaign.
“It suggests a Whitehall system out of control – a place where political dirty tricks are manufactured and leaked. And the Foreign Office now appears to be denying the very existence of such a document.
“I am therefore writing to the head of the UK civil service, Sir Jeremy Heywood, requesting an urgent inquiry into the circumstances of such a false account being leaked for transparently political motives.”
The Daily Telegraph claimed a UK Government memo written after Ms Sturgeon met Sylvie Bermann in February said she would rather see David Cameron as premier. The note, seen by the newspaper, was written by a British civil servant after a conversation with the French consul-general.
The note said: “Discussion appears to have focused mainly on the political situation, with the FM (First Minister) stating that she wouldn’t want a formal coalition with Labour; that the SNP would almost certainly have a large number of seats … that she’d rather see David Cameron remain as PM.”
The next sentence of the memo read: “I have to admit that I’m not sure that the FM’s tongue would be quite so loose on that kind of thing in a meeting like that, so it might well be a case of something being lost in translation.”
A spokesman for the French Ambassador told ITV News in a statement: “While the Ambassador and First Minister, some time ago, discussed the political situation, Ms Sturgeon did not touch on her personal political preferences with regards to the future prime minister.”
Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy pounced on the memo, calling it a “devastating revelation that exposes the uncomfortable truth behind the SNP’s General Election campaign”.