DAVID Mundell has claimed it is the job of the Scotland Office to be the ears of the UK Government in Scotland and report back the content of private conversations between Scottish Government ministers and foreign dignitaries to Whitehall.

Chairman of the Scottish Affairs Committee, Pete Wishart, said he found the comments by the Secretary of State “alarming”.

The committee was taking evidence from Mundell, the Secretary of State for Scotland, and senior civil servants at the Scotland Office, as they pored over the department’s annual report and accounts.

Francesca Osowska, director general at the Scotland Office, told the committee it was “common practice” to keep on top of the consular corps based north of the Border, and their relationship with the Scottish Government.

Mundell’s predecessor, and Osowska’s former boss Alistair Carmichael, is currently fighting claims arising from the Frenchgate affair that he broke electoral law by lying about his role in the leak of a civil servant’s report on such a meeting.

The report, by a civil servant at the Scotland Office, was the minute of a meeting between a department official and the French consul.

The consul was reportedly repeating back a conversation between First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and the French ambassador and claimed that Sturgeon allegedly voiced support for a Tory Government. Sturgeon immediately dismissed the report.

Four of Carmichael’s constituents have taken him to court. He will likely have to give evidence when the election court resumes next month.

Mundell, who was Carmichael’s number two in the last government said he “had no part in the leaking of that memo” but refused to be drawn on whether he had seen it prior to the leak.

He said: “I am Scotland’s voice in Whitehall and our job is to make sure that Scotland’s voice is heard in decisions that are made in Whitehall in the Government.

“We are also the voice and ears of the UK Government in Scotland, because Scotland has two governments.

"It’s wholly appropriate that the views of both governments are heard but also that we engage widely in relation to the activities of the UK Government in Scotland.”

Wishart asked Mundell directly: “Did you know that it was an ongoing feature that people would report back to you about conversations between the First Minister and the French ambassador?”

Mundell said: “The inquiry report set out that in terms of the actions of the civil servants involved there was no impropriety on their part.”

He added: “I had no part in the leaking of that memo.”

Wishart said: “We know you had nothing to do with the making of the leak and that the inquiry has been conducted and concluded, but did you see the memo?”

Mundell said: “All the relevant information in relation to the leak is contained in the Cabinet Office report.”

Wishart asked Mundell and Osowska how common it was for “Scotland Office civil servants to contact overseas governments to ask about private conversations between governments and Scottish Government ministers?”

He continued: “This is a bit alarming for us, because I think if Scottish ministers were listening to that conversation they would probably be thinking, quite rightly, that if they were having conversations with foreign government representatives, that this was quite likely to be recorded and given back to the Scotland Office.”

Osowska said: “It is common practice for Scotland Office civil servants to be in touch with the consular corps in Scotland.”

He added: “It is important that the Scotland Office does maintain a dialogue with the consular corps in Scotland, including the former French consul general.”

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