The SNP’s finances are back at the top of the news agenda. Michael Matheson, Holyrood’s hopeless health secretary has somehow managed to rack up an £11,000 bill on his parliamentary iPad. It appears that when the government minister was holidaying in Morocco with his family, he forgot to switch on his WiFi. But instead of admitting to the foolishness of his blunder and paying up, Matheson has begrudgingly made a ‘donation’ of £3,000 from his publicly funded office allowances. ‘Shameless’ doesn’t quite cut it…
Holyrood insiders told the Telegraph that the former net zero secretary refused to pay the remaining £7,935.74 from his own purse, deferring it instead to the Scottish parliament. After all, Matheson has claimed, the ‘costs were incurred in relation to parliamentary business and not for personal or government use’ – though Mr S finds it hard to believe that any Scottish government minister could be doing that much work.
But now the Scottish parliament’s Presiding Officer has been urged to launch an investigation into why Matheson’s £11,000 roaming bill is to be paid from the public purse when the claim ‘fails to meet’ the Scottish parliament’s expenses pay-out criteria. The Scottish Tories have pointed to an email sent to MSPs in 2018 that stated only ‘roaming costs up to £200’ will be covered and ‘the individual will be responsible for anything beyond this’. How very curious…
Matheson, who earns a tidy £120,000-a-year, has impressively managed to bill more than the combined sum of all MSP mobile phone and tablet expenses. The figures show that total expenses for 2022/23 were just over £9,000 — including Matheson’s £3,000 ‘donation’. Trebles all round! Still at least it’s a rare point of continuity, in keeping with the noble Scottish government tradition of mismanaging public funds.
With all those sky-high phone bills, let’s just hope he kept his WhatsApps eh?
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