Responding to reports in today’s Daily Mail that the Tories and the SNP have been involved in secret talks on Scotland’s constitutional future, leading Liberal Democrat MSP Margaret Smith said:

“For Annabel Goldie to have spent last year’s election campaign claiming to be the only person who stood between Alex Salmond and the break up of the union, and now to be exposed as having been in secret talks with the SNP on Scotland’s constitutional future shows the sort of cynical disregard for the electorate which Tories are often quick to accuse others of having.

“Over the last year, the Tories have tried to defend their support for the SNP administration by claiming that the relationship was open and transparent. We now learn that the two parties have been involved in the mother of all back room deals, a deal on the constitutional future of Scotland.

“Annabel Goldie now has an obligation to come clean on these shady talks and allow the people of Scotland to judge her proposals on their merits.”