THE SNP is facing questions after it invited a politician from a controversial Ukrainian party to speak at its conference.

Speaking at a fringe meeting last night, People’s Front MP Nataliya Katser-Buchkovska defended her party colleague Andriy Parubiy, who prompted uproar when he visited the Scottish Parliament earlier this year.

Ms Katser-Buchkovksa described Ukrainian parliamentary speaker Mr Parubiy, who founded the neonazi Social-National Party of Ukraine (SNPU), as “a pro-Western oriented democrat” and “a very good politician.” She dismissed the accusation that he had praised Adolf Hitler as “fake news.”

Last night, Labour frontbencher Neil Findlay, who led the criticism of Mr Parubiy’s invitation to Holyrood in June after the Star exposed the Ukrainian speaker’s past, said he was “very surprised” Ms Katser-Buchkovska had been invited to SNP conference.

Mr Parubiy’s former party, the SNPU, restricted membership to ethnic Ukrainians and had a Waffen SS-style Wolfsangel logo. Mr Parubiy had left the SNPU by 2004, and had stood on a number of other right-wing nationalist platforms before joining the People’s Front in 2014.

In 2010, Mr Parubiy defended the wartime Ukrainian ultra-nationalist Stepan Bandera, who collaborated with the nazis before he fell out with Gestapo command and was imprisoned at Sachsenhausen. When Bandera was awarded the National Hero of Ukraine title, this was condemned by Jewish and Polish groups and in a motion passed by the European Parliament.

In September, Mr Parubiy was accused of “nazi propaganda” by Vadim Rabinovych, a Ukrainian MP and president of the All-Ukraine Jewish Congress. He had described Adolf Hitler in an interview as the “person who most practised direct democracy … this was one of the key means of manipulation.”

Mr Parubiy also said he was “myself a strong supporter of direct democracy.” It is not known what nazi initiatives the speaker was referring to, but his supporters subsequently said it was meant as a criticism of the German dictator.

Ms Katser-Buchkovska was joined on the platform at the fringe meeting, titled “Ukraine: Combating ‘fake news’ and the impact of disinformation on energy security,” by SNP MPs Stephen Gethins and Martin Docherty-Hughes. The meeting focused on Russian “disinformation,” allegedly spread to reduce confidence in Ukraine’s energy self-sufficiency.

Asked by the Morning Star to comment on her party colleague’s remarks, Ms Katser-Buchkovska said: “Thank you for raising this question, because it is a very good example of fake news and manipulation.

“Our speaker, Parubiy, he is a pro-Western oriented democrat, he is a very good politician. He said that Hitler used the democratic tools to take away popular ... and for manipulation.

“It was manipulated by pro-Russian TV who said that he praised Hitler. But he said exactly that Hitler used democratic elections, other democratic tools to manipulate and for evil. So as you know, it was in history.

“So this is [a] very good example, because all pro-Russian TV, all pro-Russian parties and politicians take this news, and it was said he was a supporter of Hitler.”

Mr Findlay, who is Scottish Labour’s parliamentary business manager, said: “There are real questions about the democratic credentials of senior individuals who are members of the People’s Front party.

“Recent comments by Mr Parubiy relating to Adolf Hitler reinforce these concerns. I am very surprised that such a person was invited to speak at the SNP conference.”

The meeting was organised by the SNP and the Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD). The government-bankrolled WFD’s website says it funds SNP international work to focus “on select projects to maximise depth of intervention and use limited funding effectively.”

The SNP declined to comment on the grounds that the criticism was directed at Mr Parubiy rather than Ms Kaster-Buchkovska.