Despite it being the SNP’s main political goal, Scotland came no closer to becoming an independent state during Nicola Sturgeon’s long tenure as First Minister. Still, for Sturgeon, the SNP being in charge had at least one perk – it allowed her to cosplay as a world leader on the global stage. Who could forget the jet setting and endless summits, complete with awkward selfies with the great and good that defined her term?
Now, official spending receipts obtained by the Labour party show the extent to which taxpayers footed the bill for these foreign jamborees.
According to the documents, Scottish civil servants made 58,000 bank transactions using taxpayer funded cards between September 2019 and August last year. Officials purchased items such as nail polish, crockery, a leaving card, a ‘homedisco’ and even a driving theory test for a member of staff. There was also one payment of £4,182 for hospitality and accommodation at the five-star Gleneagles Hotel in Perthshire.
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