Scottish Conservative Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Justice, John Lamont MSP has released a statement:

“17 months after the release of the man convicted of Britain’s biggest mass murderer there are still too many unanswered questions. Despite Megrahi’s continued survival in Libya the SNP will not disclose all the medical evidence to back up the claim that he had 3 months or less to live.

“These latest revelations of alleged deals between Alex Salmond and the then Labour Government will shock many people. Releasing the Lockerbie Bomber was a bad decision, made badly, but any suggestions that the SNP was willing to use him as a pawn in their constitutional games is odious. Even to consider such a tawdry deal is an insult to the memory of those who died and to their families and friends.”

David Cameron reportedly told Hillary Clinton during a meeting at the Munich security conference this week that the release of the jailed Lockerbie bomber was a mistake.

According to Washington diplomatic sources a new British government report on the Scottish government’s release of al-Megrahi could be completed as early as next week. It could add to the pressure on MacAskill to go…

UPDATE : Kevin Pringle, Alex Salmond’s spin-doctor-in-chief, has been on to Guido to deny it all, claiming that it was Labour that wanted the deal. Guido has no doubt that Blair’s Downing Street wanted to get Al Megrahi released as part of the BP deal with Libya, it wasn’t known as “Blair Petroleum” for nothing. Nevertheless it is clear the canny Scots got their own deal in return…