Salmond will not meet Trump in New York

Published on Tuesday 18 March 2008 22:03

ALEX Salmond will almost certainly not meet Donald Trump when he spends a week in New York later this week.

The First Minister has a week of engagements planned for Scotland Week, which starts on 31 March and was formerly known as Tartan Week. But, despite meeting Mr Trump on his last visit in October last year, he has no plans to meet the property entrepreneur this time.

Mr Salmond's officials said the First Minister was not avoiding Mr Trump, but both men are aware of the controversy that has blown up over the First Minister's role in the Scottish Government's decision to "call in" the tycoon's application for a golf resort in Aberdeenshire.

Mr Trump wants to build a 1 billion golf development in Mr Salmond's Gordon constituency. The application was accepted, then turned down by two committees on Aberdeenshire Council before John Swinney, the finance secretary, decided to hand it over to a public local inquiry.

Mr Salmond's role in the decision to call in the application has been examined by a Holyrood inquiry and the First Minister has insisted that he has always acted as the constituency MSP for Gordon, not as a minister, when dealing with this issue.

Documents issued under the Freedom of Information Act yesterday showed that officials from Mr Salmond's office contacted Scottish officials in New York to confirm that he would not be meeting Mr Trump at a major event for Scotland Week on 31 March.