The SNP’s Westminster leader, Stephen Flynn, says he is “struggling” to see any scandal in health chief Neil Gray’s taxpayer-funded trips to Aberdeen football games.
Mr Flynn, MP for Aberdeen South, defended his colleague days after Mr Gray apologised to parliament for using ministerial cars to attend six matches featuring his favourite team.
“Neil is a huge sports fan, I think it’s right that he, as sports minister, goes to sporting matches, I’m struggling to see what the scandal is,” he told the BBC.
Mr Flynn, a die-hard Dundee United fan, also joked the real scandal was the Scottish Government health secretary “chose to go to far too many Aberdeen games”.
The comments came as pressure increased on Mr Gray.
Former parliamentary standards chief Sir Alistair Graham told the Sunday Post it is “too easy” for politicians to simply make a public apology.
However, it has been further claimed that Mr Gray failed to declare Hampden Park hospitality from football chiefs who lobbied him for a change in government policy.
Sir Alistair, who was chair of the committee on standards in public life at Westminster from 2004 to 2007, said actions like this “only increase cynicism about the political system“.
He said “relatively minor” examples can undermine public confidence.
“That is clearly the case here, where the use of an official car was plainly to satisfy the private interest rather than meeting the needs of the public,” he claimed.
Trust at a ‘low ebb’
Pressure is mounting for First Minister John Swinney to launch a formal investigation into whether his Cabinet colleague broke strict rules around gifts.
Last September, the health secretary said he would consider scrapping the ban on alcohol in stadiums before being slapped down by Mr Swinney.
It has since emerged Mr Gray was approached at a garden party in 2022 by bosses representing Scotland’s top clubs, who wanted to get the prohibition lifted.
The Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) – a company which runs Scotland’s senior football divisions – then twice arranged VIP seats for him to watch Aberdeen in major cup ties at Hampden.
Mr Gray registered the junkets as ministerial discussions with the sport’s governing body, the Scottish Football Association (SFA).
Calls for answers
As they were deemed to be government meetings, Mr Gray did not have to declare the SPFL’s hospitality in his Holyrood register of interests.
Both events were registered as government meetings with the SFA to discuss “Social Impact investment in Sport”.
However, Mr Gray was in fact given the match seats by the SPFL, though they weren’t declared as gifts by the minister.
A Scottish Government spokesman said: “There is no requirement on ministers to record official government events in the Scottish Parliament Register of Interests.
“Where ministers attend events in an official, government capacity these are recorded as official business and published on the Scottish Government website.
“All engagements referred to by Mr Gray in his statement to Parliament this week were official government business.”
Conversation