Back to Scotland, where SNP health secretary Neil Gray is in the spotlight over some rather curious expense claims. The nationalist minister has come under fire after it emerged that he had been using ministerial cars to take him to sports matches – and now further questions are being raised about just how justified these trips were.
Between 2022 and 2024, Gray attended nine football matches involving Aberdeen or Scotland using taxpayer-funded, chauffeur-driven cars. The SNP health secretary declared his excursions in line with official guidance, logging two of the games as meetings with the Scottish Football Association on the ‘social impact’ of sports investment while the other two were simply listed under ‘sport’. One entry in particular is causing the minister a rather lot of bother, however, with his attendance at the 2023 Scottish League Cup Final between Aberdeen and Rangers raising eyebrows. Gray was adamant at the time that he was attending the event in a work capacity and even claimed in the Holyrood chamber that notes had been taken of his conversations. But something doesn’t quite add up…
After going back and forward on Freedom of Information requests, the Scottish government has now admitted that, um, ‘no note was produced’ after the matter. For its part, the SNP government has insisted: ‘Not all events that ministers attend are minuted but a summary is often available where required.’ Not that this satisfies the opposition, with Scottish Tory deputy leader Rachael Hamilton fuming that:
The public know that the Health Secretary was on a jolly at these matches, rather than conducting official government business. He must now do the right thing and correct the official record.
The plot thickens…
Gray isn’t the first SNP minister – or even health secretary – to face scrutiny over expenses. One doesn’t have to look further than his own predecessor, Michael Matheson, who landed himself in trouble over taxpayer funds claimed for iPad roaming charges, with the whole affair costing him his job. What is it about these pesky Nats, eh?
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