Nicola Sturgeon and Humza Yousaf have pocketed eye-watering sums while SNP politicians who resigned in sex scandals are also among the beneficiaries of their own scheme for loss of office
By Bill Heaney
John Swinney is among the failed SNP Ministers to have raked in over £425,000 in ‘golden goodbyes’ over the past eight years. The SNP leader, who became First Minister in May, pocketed a £12,524.25 resettlement grant when he quit as Covid minister in 2023.
Mr Swinney, who appeared to have stepped back from frontline politics in the Scottish Parliament last year, is currently the highest-paid politician in the UK. The first minister’s office comes with a whopping salary of almost £177,000.
Not far behind him is West Dunbartonshire’s Labour Provost ‘Three Jobs’ Douglas McAllister, pictured right, our recently elected MP, who will pick up a pay packet of £91,000 from his Westminster job, plus perks and expenses, of course; £50,000 from the part-time provostship and around £100,000 (approximately £230 an hour) from his work as a solicitor in the lower courts.
Provost McAllister has still to make an announcement regarding if and when he will he will resign as a councillor in Dumbarton, but a few of his Labour Group colleagues are expected to have their eye on his gold chain and the attractive salary that goes with it.
The Dumbarton Democrat cannot find out when he will make his maiden speech in the House of Commons because he is one of the Labour councillors who have approved the ban on our news platform from speaking to the Church Street spin doctors.
He was then outrageously economical with the truth when he told people he knew nothing about the ban, despite having been contacted by us for assistance in having it lifted. That didn’t and still hasn’t happened.
Provost McAllister’s predecessor in the House of Commons, representing West Dunbartonshire, was Martin Docherty Hughes the SNP MP, who will now receive a generous payment for his failure to retain it.
Among the 32 individuals to benefit from the scheme is former health secretary Michael Matheson. Despite resigning in disgrace after his iPad scandal which involved asking Holyrood to pay for an extortionate £11,000 charge for his sons watching football on TV while the family was on holiday in Morocco , the Falkirk West MSP still picked up £12,712.
Both former finance secretary Derek Mackay and children’s minister Mark McDonald received payments despite resigning amid sex scandals.
Mackay stepped down hours before he was due to present the Scottish budget in 2020 after pestering a schoolboy via text while Mr McDonald stood down in 2017 after a staffer claimed he sent sleazy texts.
Former ministers are entitled to a grant worth 25% of their ministerial salary uplift regardless of how their time in office comes to an end. The money, funded by taxpayers, is said to help them adjust to life after losing office with the first £30,000 tax free.
Former SNP ministers have raked in £428,554 since 2016 while former Green ministers, Dumbarton man Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater received £8,497 each. The money is on top of their MSP pay of £72,196.
Scottish Conservative chairman Craig Hoy said: “The reputations of some of those who have received pay-outs lie in tatters. That will make the news even harder to swallow when Scots are dealing with the legacy of SNP ministers failing to focus on their real priorities.”
Politicians with fat wallets as a consequence of failure include Martin Docherty Hughes, Keith Brown, Joe Fitzpatrick, Michael Matheson, Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater.
Surely other payments were made. For example, Keith Brown, wasn’t he involved in the abuse cover up known as the mental health act review ? One payment was £600,000 for the review. Someone pocketed that.
Secret Scotland. It’s one cover up after another.