The SNP descended into a bitter civil war yesterday amid claims that newly unearthed messages appear to show a ‘conspiracy’ against former First Minister Alex Salmond.

Explosive WhatsApp messages reveal private conversations between senior SNP figures regarding complaints about Mr Salmond’s conduct, following his judicial review victory against the Scottish Government over the way allegations were handled.

Allies of the late SNP and Alba Party leader yesterday demanded a police investigation into the ‘conspiracy to pervert the cause of justice’.

John Swinney also faces calls to ‘come clean’ over what he knows about the messages.

It comes as former MP Joanna Cherry also claimed in a new book that there had been a witch hunt against Mr Salmond, that staff celebrated the emergence of allegations and joked about ritually melting down a bust of him.

Tory MP David Davis, a personal friend of Mr Salmond, said: ‘There was clearly a conspiracy to pervert the cause of justice involving members of the SNP and SNP government that led to the trial of Alex Salmond. Since then successive SNP governments have run a serial cover-up, suppressing evidence over and again, assisted by the compromised state of the Scottish prosecutorial system.

‘It is high time there was a proper police investigation by an independent police force beyond the control of the SNP.’

The previously unseen tranche of messages was published by the Sunday Mail, which reported they had been put before a court but not aired publicly.

They were sent between September 2018 and January 2019, after the Court of Session found the Scottish Government investigation into complaints about Mr Salmond had been unlawful and ‘tainted by apparent bias’.

In a criminal trial, the former First Minister was cleared of 13 charges at Edinburgh’s High Court in March 2020.

In the text exchanges, one senior figure is asked whether she has ‘an Alex story’, and responds: ‘If I do I don’t remember – wandering hands, some shouting, but not really? I think I wasn’t his type.’

In another exchange, the week after police announced an investigation into Mr Salmond, SNP compliance officer Ian McCann and chief operating officer Sue Ruddick discuss an attempt to find potential victims and appear disappointed that someone who said they could deliver ‘five folk by the end of that week’ had ‘overreached’. In one message, Ms Ruddick tells then SNP chief executive Peter Murrell that someone ‘seems up for the fight’ and is ‘keen to see him go to jail’.

When Mr Salmond was charged, another message said: ‘He is going to jail. And I’m ******* glad.’

Speaking on Sky News yesterday, Ms Cherry, the former MP for Edinburgh South West, said scandals are ‘swamping the SNP’, and the messages show an ‘alleged conspiracy to bring Alex Salmond down’.

Extracts from her book, Keeping The Dream Alive, serialised by the Sunday Times ahead of being published on Thursday, also allege there was a ‘witch-hunt’ against the former FM.

Scottish Conservative candidate Murdo Fraser said: ‘This scandal exposes the bitter civil war within the SNP, which continues to this day.’

Scottish Labour deputy leader Jackie Baillie said: ‘‘It’s time for John Swinney and the SNP to come clean about this scandal and tell us what actually happened and explain exactly who knew what and when.’

An SNP spokesman said: ‘These issues, including the question of WhatsApps between women, have been examined and re-examined repeatedly.

‘It is vital that all those who report bullying, sexual harassment and sexual assault are supported to do so.’