A SECRETIVE group which has given hundreds of thousands of pounds to the Scottish Tories is being pressed to publish its accounts to reveal the identity of its donors.

The Scottish Unionist Association Trust (SUAT) issued an unprecedented statement on Wednesday after the Prime Minister was urged to launch an inquiry into whether it had given “dark money” to her party. An investigation by The Ferret website earlier this month said Electoral Commission data shows that (SUAT) gave £318,876.66 to the Tories between April 9, 2001, and February 28 this year.

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The trust gave £7500 each to Banff and Buchan MP David Duguid and Moray MP Douglas Ross last year, and donated to £5000 to Scottish Tory deputy leader Jackson Carlaw before he was an MSP.

SUAT funding is legal but the SNP have claimed the Scottish Tories are “up to their necks in dark money” and have called on the Electoral Commission to crack down on “dodgy practices.” Despite its sizeable donations, the trust is not registered as an “unincorporated association” with the Electoral Commission, something the watchdog is examining.

Campaign group Unlock Democracy believes organisations such as SUAT are often created by political donors to “shield themselves from scrutiny”.

Last night, SNP MP Pete Wishart said: “It’s time the Electoral Commission used its powers to crack down on rule breaking, cheating and dark money. If the commission finds wrongdoing, we must see forfeiture of donations as well as fines – we think the scale and range of SUAT activity merits both sanctions.”

Wishart wants SUAT should publish its accounts each year from 2001 to 2017. He called for answers to whether donations from SUAT were used in the election campaigns of Duguid and Ross.

After SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford’s question to Theresa May at Prime Minister’s Questions, SUAT published the names of its trustees: chairman Robert Millar-Bakewell, Kim Donald, Patricia McPhee, Sheila Fulton, John Duncan, Peter Duncan and Frank Spencer Nairn.

It said SUAT was formed in 1968 from assets of the (then) Scottish Unionist Association, primarily sales of property assets and that “it invests those assets and makes the proceeds available to further the aims of the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party. All UK taxation liabilities have been and continue to be met in full.”

A spokesman added: “We are in dialogue with the Electoral Commission and it would be inappropriate to say more while that dialogue continues.”