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Alex Salmond has been branded a “hypocrite” after suggesting the Scottish Secretary knew about the leak of a memo claiming Nicola Sturgeon wanted David Cameron to win the general election.

The ex-First Minister said David Mundell, who stepped up to the Cabinet role after being a Scotland Office minister through the last Parliament, “must have seen” the document and questions how much he knew about it being passed to the Daily Telegraph.

Former Secretary of State Alistair Carmichael accepted responsibility and is under pressure to quit as an MP.

However, in his column in Monday’s CourierMr Salmond turns his attention to the man promoted after the Liberal Democrats were ejected from office.

He writes: “In a department with so little to do he (Mr Mundell) must have seen the infamous memo. And yet when it was mysteriously leaked he said nothing at all!

“Mundell is about to be asked the age old question: ‘What did you know and when did you know it?’”

A spokesman for Mr Mundell said: “If it’s wrong to smear the First Minister then it’s wrong to smear other. AlexSalmond can’t have it both ways.

“The First Minister accepted without reservation the findings of the inquiry so why won’t he?”

At no stage has any suggestion been made that Scotland’s sole Tory MP was involved in the leak. Mr Salmond’ssuggestion prompted outrage from a senior UK Government source.

The insider said: “He sailed close to the wind with EU legal advice during the referendum and that’s just one thing. He is a hypocrite and an embarrassment.”

Mr Carmichael apologised to both Ms Sturgeon and the French ambassador to the UK after a Cabinet Office investigation into the leak concluded he “could and should have stopped the sharing of the memo”, adding he “accepts responsibility for what occurred”.

The Lib Dem MP initially claimed he first heard about the document when he was called by a journalist but admitted during the investigation he was “aware of its content and agreed that my special adviser should make it public”.

Neither he nor special adviser Euan Roddin will claim severance pay they were entitled to after losing theirScotland Office jobs at the election.