ALEX Salmond has launched a renewed attack on the BBC’s coverage of the independence referendum days after it emerged the broadcaster’s former political editor Nick Robinson had two private meetings with David Cameron just weeks ahead of the historic vote.

The former First Minister and SNP leader said yesterday the senior broadcast journalist had “some explaining to do” after it was revealed he met with the Prime Minister on Thursday, August 28, and Sunday, August 31, last year, weeks before Scotland went to the polls in September.

He said Robinson should reveal what he discussed with the Prime Minister, and claimed the BBC should have left the coverage of the referendum to reporters specialising in politics north of the Border, such as BBC Scotland’s political editor Brian Taylor.

Robinson, who has since joined Radio 4’s Today programme, was accused of bias in the run up to last year’s independence referendum after getting into a high-profile spat with Salmond over the BBC’s coverage of a story about the possible relocation of the registered headquarters of RBS.

“Nick Robinson has some explaining to do. It seems extraordinary that the then BBC’s political editor had two private meetings with the Prime Minister in the run up to the referendum. Let’s put it like this, one meeting would be questionable, two would be more than a coincidence,” Salmond told The National.

“I had no private meetings with him. He interviewed me three times during the referendum campaign. I think he has to answer the question what was he talking about at the meetings? Was he talking about the Scottish referendum with the Prime Minister?

“What insights was David Cameron giving him, given their extensive joint knowledge of Scottish politics, that could inform his reports? Wouldn’t it have been better to leave the whole thing to somebody who knew about the issue such as Brian Taylor?”

Salmond again raised his concerns about the story Robinson reported about the possible move of the registered headquarters of the RBS out of Edinburgh in the event of a Yes vote a week before the vote.

Robinson reported the story after obtaining a Treasury briefing about the plan – before a meeting discussing the proposal was over.

But Salmond was later forced to point out at a press conference the day after Robinson’s report was broadcast that according to the bank’s chief executive Ross McEwan any move of the bank’s registered HQ was a technical matter and would not impact on jobs or the bank’s operations north of the Border.

After the referendum Salmond said he was given an email by a member of staff at the BBC showing how the story had got into Robinson’s hands.

“The reality is that no one who watched the footage of the famous press conference can come to any other conclusion than [Robinson’s report] was a blatant piece of misrepresentation, which he is going to have to face up to one day and stop making excuses for himself,” Salmond said.

“Many, many people saw it as one of the worst examples of entrenched institutional bias by the BBC. The reality is that the place where the Treasury leaked the decision... was to the BBC.”

He added: “That does not mean that all BBC journalists were part of that nexus, because after all it was a BBC journalist who gave me the email which documented [what happened] and indicates that not everybody in the BBC was particularly happy about what was going on.”

The spat at a press conference in Edinburgh a week before the referendum resulted in Salmond accusing Robinson of bias and Yes campaigners calling for him to be sacked, carrying a giant banner with his face on it at a mass protest held outside BBC Scotland’s Glasgow headquarters.

Many Yes campaigners blame BBC reporting for the final referendum result.

Responding to Salmond’s claims, the BBC said in a statement: “We focused on delivering hig- quality journalism that outlined the arguments and looked at all the issues in a balanced and impartial way. We believe we achieved that.”

Earlier this year, Salmond said Robinson should be “embarrassed and ashamed” of his coverage of the referendum when he hit back after the former BBC political editor said journalists were given “Putin”-like treatment by Yes campaigners.

Details of the Cameron/Robinson meetings emerged in documents published by Whitehall last weekend.

Released under the Westminster Government’s transparency procedures, it revealed that the Thursday three weeks before polling day was a particularly busy 24 hours in the Prime Minister’s diary.

According to the record, he met Robinson as well as Rona Fairhead from the BBC Trust for a “general discussion”. Three days later, Cameron had another “general discussion” with Robinson, Martin Ivens of the Sunday Times and the Economist.