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.
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