Monday 11 November 2024
Rachael Armstrong, Neil Gray, Hampden Park and Neil Gray,
By Democrat reporter
The Scottish Conservatives have gone in over the ball by demanding a Holyrood statement from SNP health secretary Neil Gray over the fact that he took a chauffeur driven government limo to attend football matches.
Deputy leader Rachael Hamilton said it looked like “another Michael Matheson affair,” but seasoned observers believe it’s more of a yellow card job than the red Matheson received for allowing his sons to watch the beautiful game on the telly while they were in Africa on holiday.
She said the health secretary should be “using taxpayers’ money to reduce NHS waiting lists, not cut the cost of following his football team.”
Reports say the health secretary was chauffeured to Hampden Park to watch three games featuring the team he supports, Aberdeen. The fourth game he saw was at Pittodrie.
Other SNP politicians also reportedly used ministerial cars to attend sports events, including rural secretary Mairi Gougeon, community safety minister Siobhian Brown and employment minister Tom Arthur.
There has been some hilarity in Holyrood over this.
Jokes include Gougeon being at a match when she was in fact at a cattle show; community safety minister Brown was at a Kilmarnock game questioning the safety of players on a plastic pitch; and employment minister Arthur being rumoured to have been in top level talks at Ibrox about the future job prospects of Phillipe Clement.
Scottish Conservative deputy leader Rachael Hamilton MSP said: “What is it with SNP health secretaries and claiming taxpayer funds to watch the football?
“The SNP’s shoddy excuses are making Neil Gray’s chauffeur scandal look a lot like the Michael Matheson affair.
“The thing that really bothers the public is the SNP’s secrecy and hypocrisy.
“Nationalist politicians are the first to cry foul but the last to accept they’ve done anything wrong.
“The SNP hammered Labour politicians for accepting donations for high-end clothes and all sorts of gifts, yet they don’t say much when it’s one of their own.
“Neil Gray must explain the full facts of what he’s done to the Scottish Parliament and let the public judge for themselves.
“People deserve transparency or they will lose even more trust in SNP politicians.
“The health secretary should be using taxpayers’ money to reduce NHS waiting lists, not cut the cost of following his football team.”
Armstrong’s attack has sparked a response from Gray who, on Tuesday morning, confirmed he will give a statement in Holyrood on Thursday.
She says his statement “must now outline the full facts of these trips and justify how they can be classed as government business,” adding that the public are “sick and tired” of SNP politicians’ “rank hypocrisy” and will judge Neil Gray on how honest he is in Parliament.
Rachael Hamilton added: “His defences are getting weaker by the minute and by delaying the statement to Thursday, it looks like the SNP are buying more time to try and get their story straight.
“Neil Gray must end the secrecy and outline in full the exact nature of these meetings and explain why he thinks they can possibly be considered as government business.
“The public’s trust in SNP politicians is broken and they are sick and tired of their rank hypocrisy. It’s time Neil Gray and other SNP ministers stopped hiding behind political spin and admitted exactly what they have done.”