HUMZA Yousaf has called out “hypocrisy” from the Scottish Tory leader over his criticism of Michael Matheson’s £11k iPad expenses.
The First Minister faced extensive questioning on the Health Secretary’s data roaming expenses during FMQs, from both Douglas Ross and Anas Sarwar.
Amid a challenge from Ross, Yousaf took the opportunity to criticise the MSP’s own approach to financial declarations.
In 2021, Ross failed to declare his £21,000 Holyrood salary to Westminster authorities – and also failed to declare income from 26 football games he ran the line at. In total more than £28,000 of income was not declared to the House.
Ross said he “doesn’t know why” he failed to disclose the cash and apologised for the “extremely bad” error.
At FMQs on Thursday, Yousaf read out an apologetic interview to STV – then revealed the quotes were from Ross at the time.
“’This was a big mistake by me for something I’m deeply sorry, I know how badly I’ve performed here and how much I’ve let people down. And for that I’m very sorry’,” the SNP leader quoted.
“Forgive me, this was a quote from Douglas Ross when he failed to declare £28k of income,” Yousaf said.
“Now, the point here is we didn’t call for Douglas Ross to quit. We accepted, of course, the point that he had made an honest mistake. And the hypocrisy here … is that Douglas Ross says it’s fine for him to make an honest mistake but not fine for Michael Matheson to make an honest mistake.
“So we will not get distracted by Douglas Ross’s political opportunism, the Health Secretary is getting on with the job of making sure the health service recovers through what will be a difficult winter.”
The exchange came as it emerged that Matheson is to be investigated by the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body (SPCB) over the expenses row.
Matheson admitted last week in an emotional statement to MSPs his teenage sons had used his parliamentary iPad as a hotspot to watch football during a holiday in January, incurring costs of more than £7000 in one day as a result of an out of date Sim card.
Following a failed challenge over the bill to provider EE, Matheson initially agreed to pay £3000 from his own expenses and the remaining balance was paid by his office – all of which is funded by taxpayers.
But following press reports about the bill, he said he would cover the full cost personally.
Matheson previously told journalists there had been no personal use of the iPad during the trip, prompting accusations he had been untruthful as he said in his statement in Holyrood that he did not initially provide the reasons for the bill when he found out earlier this month in order to protect his family.
Following significant pressure from opposition politicians, Matheson referred himself to the SPCB – but was told this was not possible.
In the latest twist in the saga, the body announced on Thursday it will undertake an investigation of the Health Secretary and potentially refer him to the Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee.
