Instead he suggested she had been the victim of internal Labour Party politics.

Ms Alexander, the elder sister of International Development Secretary Douglas Alexander, stood down as leader of Labour in the Scottish Parliament on Saturday.

Her decision came after a long-running controversy over donations to her leadership campaign.

As part of that Holyrood`s Standards Committee ruled she should be suspended from the Parliament for one day for failing to declare donations.

When she resigned Ms Alexander had said she was the victim of a "partisan" decision by the Standards Committee and claimed there had been a "breach of natural justice".

But speaking on Sky News Mr Salmond said: "If Wendy Alexander was a victim at all, she was a victim of machinations from within the Labour Party."

Mr Salmond claimed details of the donations had been given to the press by somebody in Ms Alexander`s "inner circle".

He said: "This is about information sourced from directly within the Labour Party."

Ms Alexander has always maintained she acted in good faith and had been told by clerks to the Standards Committee that she did not need to declare the donations.