SCOTTISH Tory leader Douglas Ross has been accused of using his MP expenses to travel while working as an assistant referee while his team covered it up.
According to the Sunday Mail Ross’s team have identified 28 claims he made to Westminister while carrying out work as a football referee after he had already been confronted about possible rule-breaking.
The findings have only recently come to light after the fallout over Ross replacing his sick colleague David Duguid to stand in his constituency of Banff and Buchan last week.
A senior Tory source revealed to the Sunday Mail the team discussed the travel claims when contacted by journalists but hoped nobody would pick them up.
Ross apparently billed the taxpayer for flights between London to Glasgow and Edinburgh, where he was working as an SFA linesman.
Only travel from an MP’s declared home airport, which in Ross’s case who was the MP for Moray would be Inverness or Aberdeen, can be claimed as constituency travel.
The expense watchdog, Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA), were led to believe that Ross was returning to his Moray constituency.
However, the claims were all wrongly classed as “London-constituency” with IPSA.
Ross’s team identified the 28 expenses where he wrongly used parliamentary-funded travel for his refereeing work after he was first asked questions about the expenses by journalists in 2021.
His team were said to have identified multiple cases where the Scottish Tory leader had combined parliamentary travel with linesman work or claims for parking while refereeing for the SFA on expenses.
According to reports, Ross’s team back in November 2021 identified dozens of cases like a £58 parking claim at Inverness airport in July 2018 while parliament was in recess.
He also claimed £43 in rail travel from Heathrow to central London the day after he refereed a match in Iceland.
In October 2019, he claimed for a flight from London to Glasgow and for £109 parking with NCP car parks, and on November 1, 2020, he claimed £48.99 for parking the day he refereed a Celtic game.
Other travel outside flying, like travelling by train, must be classed as a diverted journey if it does not cost more and MPs must provide detailed notes alongside every claim to explain why it their travel was diverted.
According to the Sunday Mail, a party insider said: “The latest antics from Douglas are a disgrace and he should be ashamed of himself. He has always wanted to stay at Westminster and he’s completely screwed over a hard-working colleague to get there. Many of us are disgusted with it.”
Ross was also one of MSP Michael Matheson's strongest critics, as he said the former SNP Health secretary should be shown a “red card” after he was suspended for incorrectly claiming £11,000 on expenses for a phone bill while on holiday.
When asked by The National about the reported claims Ross said: “I have only ever claimed expenses related to my role as a member of parliament and the costs of getting me to and from Westminster.
“These have all been agreed by IPSA, the independent body that oversees MPs expenses, but I would have no issue with them being scrutinised again.”
The SNP has called for urgent clarity on the matter and would also like to see further scrutiny on Ross's expenses.
They said: “This revelation will come as no surprise after the recent shameful behaviour of Douglas Ross, however further scrutiny is clearly needed.
“He needs to urgently explain whether he has been using taxpayer money to pay his expenses for his third job as a linesman.”
