Keir Starmer has called on Nicola Sturgeon to publicly condemn Alex Salmond over his role as a broadcaster on the Kremlin-funded Russia Today (RT) station.
The Labour leader has used the publication of the parliamentary report into Russian interference in UK democracy to challenge the SNP leader to call out her previous boss.
A spokesman for the Labour leader said the First Minister “should come forward publicly and issue a clear statement condemning” Salmond after a report from the parliamentary intelligence watchdog highlighted RT as a Kremlin propaganda tool.
At Prime Minister’s Questions Starmer pressed for action against “Kremlin-backed disinformation” and suggested the Prime Minister should “look again” at the licensing for RT to operate in the UK.
Johnson airily dismissed the Russia report calling for an inquiry into Russian influence on the Brexit referendum as “criticisms motivated by a desire to undermine the referendum, the result of which he simply cannot bring himself to accept.”
But when the Prime Minister accused the opposition of “sitting on its hands” over Russia Starmer took the opportunity to distance himself from Jeremy Corbyn’s stance.
He declared: “The Labour Party is under new management”.
Johnson said the Labour leader should have called out his predecessor “when he took money for appearing on Russia Today”.
But Johnson’s quip that the “leader of the Opposition has more flip-flops than Bournemouth beach” fell flat.
Starmer shot back: “In case the Prime Minister hadn’t noticed, the Labour Party is under new management and no frontbencher of this party has appeared on Russia Today since I’ve been leading this party.”
The Labour leader wasn’t alone in slamming the former First Minister for his continued role on Russia Today.
David Mundell, the former Tory Scottish Secretary” called out Salmond in the Commons.
During an urgent debate on the Russia report Mundell told the Commons it is “absolutely shameful that Alex Salmond remains in the pay of the Kremlin as an apparatchik of Russia Today and so few nationalists condemn him for it”.
Stewart Hosie MP, the SNP member of the Intelligence and Security Committee, refused to criticise any individual when challenged about Salmond’s role at the launch of the Russia report.
The Dundee East MP told the Daily Record: “The report does not make any criticism of any individual programme maker, commentator or presenter. That is not what it is about.”
Though no senior SNP figures came forward Alex Cole-Hamilton, the Scottish Liberal Democrat MSP, joined the chorus of condemnation.
He said: “Alex Salmond needs to accept that he has been promoting a TV channel that has a damaging agenda for western democracy. He should pull out now because he is insulting our country’s democratic values by staying in his post.”
Salmond stared his controversial show on RT in November 2017 but because of covid restrictions it has been recently broadcast as a podcast.
The show is produced by Slainte Media by Slainte Media, a company co-owned by Salmond and former SNP MP Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh.
