SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn has said criticism of Scotland’s Health Secretary over using a ministerial car to attend football games was “not a scandal”.
Neil Gray, whose portfolio includes sport, has been under fire this week after it emerged he had been chauffeured to six football matches at Hampden since becoming a minister, four of which included the team he supports. He apologised this week in a ministerial statement, conceding he should have went to a “wider range” of football matches.
“I think when it comes to how ministers partake in their duties, we need to be serious about the fact that our sports minister going to sporting events is not a scandal,” he said on the BBC’s Sunday Show. “He’s doing his job and he’s doing his job to the best of his ability.
“What tends to happen in politics is you tend to create relationships, have discussions with people and that could only happen by being in those places at certain times. I would certainly be encourage all of our ministers to get out with the people that they represent, the bodies who of course play a huge role within Scottish society.”
He added: “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.”
Mr Flynn, a die-hard Dundee United fan, also joked that the real scandal was that the Health Secretary “chose to go to far too many Aberdeen games”, in a jibe at one of his team’s rivals. But speaking on the same programme, Scottish Labour deputy leader Jackie Baillie said the issue was a scandal.
“Their eye’s are off the ball, no pun intended,” she said. You need to think about what your priorities are. When social care is in crisis, why are you going to football games?”
Put to her that Mr Gray’s portfolio also covers sport, Ms Baillie responded: “But (he is) also the health and social care minister, where we have one in six people on waiting lists in Scotland, where 9,000 people are waiting for an assessment, these should be priorities.” While Scottish Tory finance spokesman Craig Hoy said his party had made “the very reasonable ask” of the Scottish Government for minutes of the meetings held at the matches to be published.
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