First Minister Alex Salmond has been likened to an unscrupulous car salesman over his dealings with tycoon Donald Trump.
The US businessman has claimed he was given assurances that an offshore windfarm development planned for a site near his Aberdeenshire golf resort would not be built.
Conservative leader Ruth Davidson compared the SNP leader to the Arthur Daley character from the comedy TV show Minder, and claimed something “stinks” about the whole affair.
The first minister was also branded Rupert Murdoch’s “defender in chief” by Labour leader Johann Lamont over his links with the media mogul.
She, Ms Davidson and Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie criticised Mr Salmond over the suggestion he would lobby UK Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt regarding News Corp’s proposed takeover of satellite broadcaster BSkyB.
Mr Salmond insisted his interest in the deal was linked to employment.
Ms Lamont said: “He says it’s about jobs. I think he just likes rich men. 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?”
Mr Trump told MSPs on Wednesday he had been “lured” into investing in Scotland by the first minister and his predecessor Jack McConnell, who he said had assured him the European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre in Aberdeen Bay, near his £750million golf complex, would not be approved.
Yesterday, Mr Salmond denied he made any such promise when the pair attended a dinner, organised by networking initiative GlobalScot, in a New York restaurant in October 2007.
Mr Salmond said he had a phone conversation in which Mr Trump “accepted that he had never had any commitment from this administration but he considered us bound by the commitment of the previous administration”.
Ms Davidson said: “Is the first minister seriously asking the Scottish people to believe that when a multi-billionaire was threatening to pull the plug as soon as he took office, that he didn’t, like some latter-day Arthur Daley, tell his new best pal that he would get it sorted?
“Something here stinks.”