Alex Salmond attacked over meetings with Rupert Murdoch and Donald Trump Published on Thursday 26 April 2012 17:09 ALEX Salmond's relationships with Donald Trump and Rupert Murdoch have come under fire at Holyrood. Opposition leaders attack SNP leader over ties with tycoons during First Minister's Questions Alex Salmond insists he was advocating jobs for Scotland during meetings with Rupert Murdoch Ruth Davidson: Salmond had "candlelit Manhattan dinners" with Donald Trump Johann Lamont, the Scottish Labour lader, said the First Minister had had an "infatuation with very rich men" She also claimed the SNP leader was a "sucker." She turned on him over his relationship with News Corporation chairman Rupert Murdoch. Yesterday, documents suggested Mr Salmond would lobby UK Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt regarding the proposed takeover of BSkyB. Ms Lamont also claimed the First Minister had a "deal" with Mr Trump - who told MSPs yesterday he had been "lured" into investing in Scotland. Tory leader Ruth Davidson joined in the attack, claiming Mr Salmond had enjoyed "candlelit Manhattan dinners" with Mr Trump, with the two men "talking for hours on their favourite subjects of golf and wind farms." Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie also questioned the First Minister's relationship with Mr Murdoch, accusing him of putting "his own political motives above those of the phone-hacking victims." Ms Lamont focused much of her attack on her rival's dealings with the Murdochs, saying: "I'm not going to ask the First Minister if he supported Murdoch so that Murdoch's Sun supported him, the public will have made their up their own minds on that." The First Minister has discussed employment in Scotland during his meetings with Mr Murdoch. The Labour leader said: "He says it's about jobs. I think he just likes rich men. Some say the First Minister has been devious, conniving, double dealing. Isn't he just trying to cover up the fact a rich man has played him for a fool again? Is it not the case he's no statesman, just a sucker? But Mr Salmond insisted: "The job of a First Minister is to advocate jobs for Scotland. This First Minister will continue to do it. The clashes at First Minister's Questions in the Scottish Parliament came after it emerged during the Leveson Inquiry into press standards that News Corp's director of public affairs Frederic Michel emailed James Murdoch and said: "I met with Alex Salmond's adviser today. Ms Lamont claimed that after an "uncharacteristic silence" from the First Minister, he had "last night finally alighted on a defence of his position to support Rupert Murdoch's bid to take over BSkyB." She went on: "It is, he says, because it would have created jobs in Scotland." Ms Lamont then asked when the First Minister had "first articulated this view in public." Mr Salmond told her emails showed the issue had first been discussed in November 2010. He also said his government had released correspondence concerning a meeting he had with Rupert Murdoch's son James last January "which looked in particular at the prospects of employment in Scotland." He said that BSkyB employed more than 6,000 people in Scotland but said "major job losses" were threatened last year when the company reduced the number of its contractors from nine to two. "That carried with it the risk of major job losses in Scotland unless Scotland won the contracts," Mr Salmond told her. But he added he was "delighted" that HEROtsc had won the major contract, with the company bringing up to 900 jobs to Glasgow. In full: Meetings between Alex Salmond and Rupert Murdoch