A multi-millionaire MSP is cutting back on the time he dedicates to his businesses following accusations double-jobbing Conservatives are neglecting their public duties.
Sir Edward Mountain, a Highlands and Islands MSP for the Scottish Conservatives, has reduced the number of hours he spends tending to his fishing and farming interests.
The SNP say Holyrood Tories have form in missing parliamentary duties because of other paid-for commitments.
Sir Edward is a partner at Delfur Farms Farming Partnership in Moray and on his original declaration of interests said he received between £35,001 and £40,000 a year for between five and six hours work a week.
That has gone down to between two and four hours.
He also reduced his weekly working hours from between two and four to one at Delfur Fishings, a salmon fishing business he owns half of.
The SNP’s Maree Todd, a Highlands and Islands MSP, said there has been no change in his registered income from the ventures, meaning he has effectively doubled his hourly rate.
“The Tories stood on a platform promising strong opposition, but it looks like Ruth Davidson’s MSPs are more interested in picking up their pay cheques for lucrative second jobs than in getting on with the job they were elected to do,” she said.
Douglas Ross, the Tories’ justice spokesman in Holyrood, has come under fire for missing parliamentary business to work as an assistant referee at elite level football matches, for which he is paid up to £40,000 a year.
An MSP’s salary stands at £60,685.
A spokesman for the Scottish Conservatives said: “Edward’s manager has now been in place for more than a year and both are sufficiently comfortable with the arrangement that he can scale back his involvement as a result.”