PENALTY FOR WATCHING OLD FIRM ON TV AND CLAIMING EXPENSES FOR THE £11,000 BILL WILL GO TO HOLYROOD VAR

Michael Matheson – SNP – Falkirk West Pic – Andrew Cowan/Scottish Parliament

First Minister John Swinney, Michael Matheson, Douglas Ross and Anas Sarwar.

By Bill Heaney

Michael Matheson misused taxpayers’ money. He made a false claim for £11,000. He misled the public, the press and this parliament. However, when the scandal came to light, the Scottish National Party lined up a stout defence and backed him to the hilt. 

This was the line taken by Conservative leader Douglas Ross in the Matheson expenses debate in Scottish Parliament on Thursday.  Mr Ross said that the SNP “must surely accept the full scale of the deceit and abuse of trust”.

But the SNP countered that Mr Matheson was “a person of integrity and character” who didn’t deserve suspension or any other sanction to be imposed on him.

Mr Ross added: “It is proposed that he be banned from this Parliament for 27 days. He is still sitting on the SNP benches today. Will John Swinney do the right thing and kick Michael Matheson out of the SNP? Does the First Minister accept that the SNP was wrong to fully support Michael Matheson?”

“However, as I consider the findings from the Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee, I have a significant concern. I believe that the process has been prejudiced. [Tory MSPs] Stephen Kerr and Annie Wells made comments about the case, long before it came to the committee, which prejudged it. Stephen Kerr had the good grace to admit that he “couldn’t meet the committee requirement to be unbiased”,  so he removed himself from the committee.

“Annie Wells, pictured left, has made public comments. On 27 November, she said that Michael Matheson’s “desperate efforts to justify his outrageous expenses claim have been riddled with lies, cover-ups and the need for us all to suspend our disbelief.”

“If a constituent came to me and said that they were about to face a disciplinary panel at work, and one of the panel members had made prejudicial comments about them, I would come down on that employer like a ton of bricks. That is the situation that Michael Matheson faces here, and that is why I will not support the sanction.”

It didn’t take long before the Presiding Officer, was brandishing a yellow card — “I would be grateful if we could conduct ourselves in a courteous and respectful manner, as is required of us by standing orders.”

“Shockingly, John Swinney is standing here today, defending the indefensible. MSPs must be honest—Michael Matheson was not. MSPs must act with integrity—Michael Matheson did not. MSPs must be trusted by the public—Michael Matheson is not. He is to be banned from this Parliament for a few weeks but, in the real world, he would have lost his job for what he did and what he claimed.”

John Swinney sold him a dummy: “I have an issue with people prejudging the case, because that brings the Parliament into disrepute.

“If a constituent came to me to say that they were about to face a disciplinary panel at work and one of the panel members had made prejudicial comments about them, I would come down on that employer like a ton of bricks.

“I have said that Michael Matheson had made mistakes. He resigned and lost his job as a member of the Cabinet and he paid the roaming [communication] costs in question. There was no cost to the public purse. As a consequence of the issues that have been raised here about the conduct of the process, I do not believe that the sanction can be applied.”

Douglas Ross was not for playing to the whistle. He replied: “That is incredible and indefensible from the First Minister. When he asked for our support to make him First Minister, he told us that he would be First Minister for all of Scotland. However, what Scotland is seeing is that he is the First Minister who backs his pals. He is supporting Michael Matheson as a friend and colleague, and is not doing the right thing for Scotland or this Parliament.

“My colleagues Annie Wells and Oliver Mundell, and every member on that committee, went in to do their job, as they were asked to do by this Parliament. If anyone has brought the Scottish Parliament into disrepute, it is a member who tried to claim £11,000 from the Scottish taxpayer and get away with it.

“The seriousness of this incident and the deep damage that the conduct of Michael Matheson has done to public trust in the Parliament demand that he must resign, but we know from his conduct so far that he is unlikely to do that.

“What will shock and appal people across Scotland is that he is now being endorsed by the First Minister of this country. I can announce today that if the SNP is not going to do the right thing for Scotland, the Scottish Conservatives will seek to bring forward a vote in the chamber next week. Our motion will state that Michael Matheson should resign for misusing taxpayers’ money and for making false statements to the public, the press and Parliament.”

“This Parliament needs to consider seriously the reputational issues that will arise from presiding over an unfair process.”

The Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar was aghast when he saw Douglas Ross being brought down in the penalty box. If there were to be no sanctions then VAR would have to be brought in.

He said: “What we have heard today from the First Minister is utterly unbelievable and embarrassing. He has demeaned himself and the office of First Minister. Two weeks in, and the pretence of a new kind of government is gone—party first, country second. He talked about the actions that should be judged here. It is not the actions of a committee that should be judged, but the actions of a member who attempted to wrongly claim £11,000 of public money. In the real world, that employee would lose their job, not have their bosses running around trying to protect them, which is what we got from the First Minister.

“On all the complaints that are now being made, why were those on the Government benches not making those complaints before the process started, rather than after it had concluded? I am talking about the wider Government, not just one individual.

“Every single day, the two Governments are getting more and more alike. Put the integrity of our Parliament and our democracy before your political party and demand that Michael Matheson resign so that the people of his constituency can vote for someone who is on their side and not fighting for themselves.

“I come at this issue using the fundamental Christian maxim of doing unto others what you would have done unto yourself. It worries me that what is being proposed is something that none of us would like to have done to us, because of its unfairness. That is the issue that Parliament has to confront.”