An adviser to two Chinese firms which signed a memorandum of understanding with the Scottish Government has claimed the First Minister wants work on the projects to start 'this year'.

Sir Richard Heygate claimed the First Minister wants to "push" and "get moving" on projects involving affordable housing and clean energy in an interview with BBC Radio Scotland. The First Minister previously stated that there was "no agreement" on projects with the China Railway firm.

Heygate said: "The most obvious one is affordable housing. We've already identified land space in three areas of Scotland for 5000 affordable homes, which we would like to tackle very quickly as a first initiative.

"She was absolutely positive right from the start. We presented a number of particular projects in affordable housing, clean energy, developing new industrial parks and infrastructure, and she went straight for the ones which are most important.

"She said the two I want to focus on are affordable housing and clean energy. And I want to push those and I want to get moving, I don't want this to be another initiative which is just talked about and take forever, I want to get something moving this year."

Earlier this week Nicola Sturgeon said there was "no agreement" on investment projects.

Sturgeon said: "There is no agreement from China Railway to invest in any projects in Scotland.

"What we have is a memorandum of understanding to explore opportunities.

"If there is in the future any proposal for an actual investment, then full due diligence would be done in the normal way by the Scottish government and it would be subject to the full scrutiny of the Scottish Parliament."

Scottish Labour has accused the First Minister of having "misled" the public on the deal.

The party's public services and wealth creation spokesperson Jackie Baillie said:"On Wednesday Nicola Sturgeon said there were no proposals on the table, yet today the UK representative of the Chinese consortium has confirmed that at least three projects have been identified across the country. Nicola Sturgeon has simply not been telling the truth and that is unacceptable. Nicola Sturgeon has misled Scots on this deal.

"This deal stinks and it has done from the very beginning. First, SNP Ministers didn't want people to know about this secret deal and they only published details under pressure from Labour and journalists. Then Nicola Sturgeon told us there were no specific proposals on the table but now we know that isn't the case at all. Why can't the SNP just tell the truth?

"It's time for the SNP to stop the ducking and diving. Nicola Sturgeon should order the full publication of all documents relating to this deal, going as far back as a year ago when talks first began. The SNP can't keep misleading people about this deal."

The memorandum of understanding was initially reported by Chinese news agencies with no publication from the Scottish Government. The two firms which signed the memorandum are China Railway No.3 Engineering Group and Sino Fortone.

Opposition party politicians have raised concerns over both the lack of initial publication from the Scottish Government and China Railway's history. The Norwegian state oil fund has blacklisted China Railway's parent company "due to an unacceptable risk that the company is involved in gross corruption".

However, Sir Richard Heygate said that the company he advises is "squeaky clean".

Heygate said: "We could not be more squeaky clean in terms of backing from the very top of the Chinese state.

"I have no idea what this thing refers to, but the companies we're dealing with, you could not be more A-star in terms of backing, right up to the president of China.

"Saying we should tear something up which is not a legal agreement just sounds crazy to me; it's just jealously, political back-biting."

Speaking at the reopening of the Dalzell steelplant the First Minister said "proper due diligence" will be completed before any investment.

Sturgeon said: "My job as First Minister is to secure investment in Scotland and to help create more jobs in Scotland.

"I'm not going to apologise to anybody for that. Of course there has to be proper due diligence done but at the end of the day people should want a First Minister who takes the view their job is to get investment into Scotland."