“I will be writing to Netflix to ask them to substantiate the claim they made.”

The ‘real’ Martha

After it aired on the streaming platform, online sleuths hunted for the character Martha is based on.

Fiona Harvey then identified herself as the woman portrayed as Martha. Neither Netflix nor Richard Gadd has confirmed her identity.

Harvey subsequently did an interview with Piers Morgan and said the claims made in the series were not true.

She said she had not sent thousands of emails to Gadd, nor had she been convicted of stalking or gone to prison.

Apart from the evidence King gave to the parliamentary committee, Netflix has not commented on the controversy surrounding the series.

Baby Reindeer has been watched by 65 million people worldwide. It is a dramatised account of the stalking Gadd was subjected to which he has since described as his “emotional truth”.

In the opening episode the show claims: “This is a true story”.

Harvey is also threatening legal action against Netflix and the company which made the drama, Clerkenwell films, owned by BBC Studios, because they failed in its duty of care to protect her identity.

She claims they should have taken more care to protect her identity as the character in the drama is similarly Scottish, a lawyer and overweight.

Chris Banatvala, former head of standards at Ofcom, told The Media Show there is “a duty of care” whenever you make a programme dealing with potentially vulnerable people, “whether that’s Richard Gadd or Fiona Harvey”.

Netflix and the SNP have been approached for comment.

The Telegraph, London