Kezia Dugdale has accused the SNP of playing “dirty tricks” after details of her work experience application to a Nationalist MSP ended up in a national newspaper.
Willie Rennie, the leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats, has described it as a potentially “serious data protection breach” as he called for the Information Commissioner to investigate the leak.
The Scottish Labour leader applied for the role when she was a student – but says she has “absolutely zero recollection” of doing so.
Ms Dugdale’s opponents have claimed it exposes her as a career politician and further muddies her stance on independence.
But the 34-year-old former Lothians MSP said she suspects the SNP is indulging in underhand tactics.
“I have supposedly applied for work experience – not a job – 13 years ago in February 2003 and I have absolutely zero recollection of this,” she told an audience in Edinburgh yesterday.
“I find the whole thing just a complete anathema. I don’t where it has come from.”
She added: “I have got this strong sense that this is part of a dirty tricks campaign.”
The Aberdeen-born Labour politician warned the episode could put young people off applying for work experience if they feel it “might bite them 10/15 years further down the line”.
Richard Lochhead, the rural affairs secretary, was named on a newspaper’s website as the MSP who received Ms Dugdale’s application.
In his letter to the Information Commissioner, Willie Rennie said: “Speculative applications for employment are often made with data frequently kept on file by employers for some time afterwards.
“But that application should have remained confidential and I believe that if it was released by the SNP to a journalist it amounts to a serious breach of data protection.
“Scots deserves to know that employers collect, use and keep personal information appropriately and I would invite you to investigate this matter as I am deeply concerned about the implications for civil liberties in this country.”
Ms Dugdale also hit out at Nicola Sturgeon for an “abdication of duty” by not using new Holyrood tax powers to end austerity.
An SNP spokesman said: “The fact Ms Dugdale asked for a position in the SNP has been very common knowledge in Holyrood circles for a long time.
“No documents of any kind have ever been given to any outside organisation.”
