Alex Salmond had sold off three more lunches

THE cash-for-access row surrounding First Minister Alex Salmond deepened last night when the SNP revealed he had agreed to attend a further three lunches at the Scottish Parliament in exchange for party donations.

• Salmond: functions cancelled.

The SNP disclosure was an attempt to "draw a line" under a controversy that blew up last week when a businessman pledged 9,000 for lunch with the First Minister.

But opposition parties last night claimed that auctioning lunch with Salmond at Holyrood was a cash-for-access scam to line the SNP's coffers. They accused him of a "systematic abuse of the First Minister's office".

Details released by the SNP yesterday showed that one of Salmond's lunch guests at Holyrood's exclusive restaurant was to be activist lawyer Aamar Anwar. Anwar successfully bid 1,000 for the meeting at an auction aimed at raising funds for one of the party's Westminster candidates last year. In total, the SNP stood to gain 12,500 from auctioning off lunches with Salmond and his deputy, Nicola Sturgeon.

The First Minister last night announced that he would now be cancelling all the lunches ahead of a decision by Holyrood's authorities on whether they breach parliamentary rules.

But he is now facing an official inquiry by the parliament's Standards Commissioner, who has been asked to see whether they breach the MSPs' official code of conduct.

The chain of events began last week when Salmond and Sturgeon attended a party fundraiser for their Westminster candidate in Glasgow Central, Osama Saeed.

The businessman who bought lunch with Salmond for 9,000 is named today as Amim Hussein.

Meanwhile, another Glasgow businessman, Khalid Javid, paid 2,000 to the SNP to have a lunch at the parliament with Sturgeon.

Salmond issued a statement yesterday afternoon which he said was designed to "draw a line" under the matter. In it he revealed that he was due to have four lunches at the parliament. Anwar "won" his lunch with Salmond during another fundraising event when Saeed was formally adopted as the party's candidate.

Last night Anwar told Scotland on Sunday: "Having known Osama Saeed for a number of years, his record on community matters is impeccable. I haven't actually made my donation yet, but am very happy to do so – and I'm not really bothered about having a lunch anyway.

"Mr Saeed does not have multi-millionaire backers or block trade union funding, so the fuss over this issue is extraordinary, and the hypocrisy of some Labour politicians staggering.

Another lunch was "won" by Salmond's constituency agent, Councillor Stuart Pratt, who paid 400 at a fundraiser in Inverurie before Christmas. The final lunch was raffled by the group Young Scots for Independence at the SNP annual conference last year for 100.

Salmond yesterday released the text of a letter he has written to Presiding Officer Alex Fergusson in which he revealed his intention to cancel all the lunches "as we await the Corporate Body providing new advice" on which lunches were within the rules.

Last week, a parliament spokesman said the restaurant could "not be used for any other purpose" than for "parliamentary duties". The SNP has hit back, claiming this means even lunches arranged for charities are therefore outside the rules.

A spokesperson for Salmond said: "The position set out by the Scottish Parliament on Thursday – stating that the restaurant must not be used for 'any other purpose' than parliamentary duties – potentially puts every MSP in breach, because it would clearly prevent it being used for lunches auctioned by charities and local organisations, which MSPs of all parties do on a regular basis, and where there can be no control over who wins such a lunch."

He added: "We need clarity, but of course for understandable reasons the Corporate Body will take some weeks to provide that. Therefore, Mr Salmond and Ms Sturgeon are cancelling the lunches arising from party auctions, and seeking an interim ruling that charity-related lunches should go ahead."

But an unnamed Labour member has now referred the case to Stuart Allen, the Parliament Standards Commissioner whose investigations contributed to the resignation of the former Labour leader at Holyrood, Wendy Alexander.

Scottish Labour leader Iain Gray said last night: "It would appear now the First Minister and his deputy Nicola Sturgeon were systematically selling access for private meetings in order to raise party funds."