Ian Murray has refused to say whether he will return the cash that paid for his VIP visit to a Premier League football match.
The Labour Scottish Secretary was treated to free hospitality at Anfield last week for the Liverpool v Bournemouth game alongside Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar.
The freebie, paid for by Salmon Scotland, comes amid a row over the tens of thousands of pounds’ worth of gifts given to Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his top team.
On Wednesday, the Labour leader said he would pay back £6,000 worth of donations, including the cost of six Taylor Swift tickets and a designer clothing agreement for his wife.
The cash amounts to a small percentage of his gifts though and does not include the cost of his football tickets, worth tens of thousands of pounds.
Asked on Thursday whether he would pay back the cost of the Liverpool trip, the Scottish Secretary refused to answer at least three times.
Speaking after an interfaith candle lighting ceremony in Edinburgh, he said: “It’s really important for the government and the opposition to engage with sectors and engage with businesses.
“Scottish Salmon is the largest exporter of foodstuffs in the whole of the United Kingdom and being able to create those relationships is really, really important.”
He added: “This was a really important engagement to have as one of our key sectors in the economy.”
The Prime Minister has committed to overhauling hospitality rules for ministers to ensure better transparency about what is provided following the freebies backlash.
Murray said that while his government had been transparent, it was right that the rules should change.
Asked if he would take such a donation again, he said: “What I would take again is the ability to be able to work with businesses and sectors, which is what we should be doing as a government, and making sure that that’s transparent and in the public record.
“As the Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster laid out, the rules will change to make it even more transparent, to make sure that government ministers are registering stuff as the same way that we do as MPs, which is not the way it is at the moment.”
He said it was right for the Prime Minister to hand back some of his donations while that review is under way.
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