The SNP consultant who met Cambridge Analytica ahead of the 2016 Holyrood election has been named.

The party admitted a meeting had been held with the scandal-hit firm after talks were revealed by former CA director Brittany Kaiser.

The SNP said it had involved an "external consultant" now named as Kirk J Torrance, who was a new media strategist for the party between 2009 and 2011.

He then worked as a consultant doing a similar job for the party until 2016.

Cambridge Analytica has become embroiled in a scandal over the alleged misuse of Facebook data which has wiped billions of the social media company's value.

It has been claimed data harvested from Facebook users was used to deliver pro-Trump messages to potential voters in the 2016 US election.

Mr Torrance said he met the company in February 2016 on behalf of the SNP.

"My recommendation was to not touch the firm with a barge pole, as they were a bunch of cowboys," he said.

"From what is known now about Cambridge Analytica, I am glad the SNP took my advice."

Mr Torrance was the executive director of the mothballed consultancy firm Industrial New Media when the meeting with Cambridge Analytica took place.

STV News revealed last week that the UK's information watchdog had seized material from Cambridge Analytica stored at a "secure data centre" in Scotland.

It followed a raid on Cambridge Analytica's London offices.

The seizures are part of the Information Commissioner's Office's investigation into the use of personal data by political campaigns and social media companies.