Scotland’s former health secretary has been suspended as an MSP and docked 54 days’ pay for wrongly claiming an £11,000 iPad bill on expenses, after a bitter row at Holyrood.
MSPs voted by a large margin to suspend Michael Matheson for 27 days, as well as having his pay docked, after Scottish National party ministers and backbenchers abstained on the orders of John Swinney, the first minister and SNP leader.
Swinney had previously angrily lashed out about the proposed sanctions by arguing that Matheson, a close friend of his, had already been punished enough for wrongly claiming expenses to cover his sons’ use of a parliamentary iPad.
After heated exchanges between Douglas Ross, the Scottish Tory leader, and Kate Forbes, the deputy first minister, the SNP pushed through an amendment with Scottish Green party support that attacked the process used to sanction Matheson.
But the SNP’s 63 MSPs then abstained on the final vote on the amended motion, to avoid the embarrassment of voting for or against Matheson’s punishment. It was carried by 64 to zero after all four opposition parties supported it.
Parliamentary sources said the normal protocol is for MSPs to have a free vote on disciplinary motions as those are not a matter of party or government policy. Ross said the SNP position was “bizarre in the extreme”.
That followed days of uncertainty about whether Swinney would accept the sanctions recommended by Holyrood’s standards committee, the heaviest ever imposed on an MSP. Earlier this week, some SNP sources were saying the party would support them.
Swinney argues the committee’s ruling was suspect because Annie Wells, one of its two Tory members, had been clearly prejudiced because she had attacked Matheson’s conduct in a tweet.
He said Wells’s bias brought the integrity of parliament into question. “I do not believe that the sanction can be applied,” Swinney told MSPs last week. On Monday, however, Swinney suggested one was justified.
His stance has dismayed SNP MPs who believe the scandal will damage their chances of re-election on 4 July because it has cut-through with voters.
It emerged last week that Swinney had privately lobbied the committee over Matheson’s punishment before becoming SNP leader, complaining vociferously about a series of tweets by another Tory MSP on the standards committee which were highly critical of Matheson.
That MSP, Stephen Kerr, voluntarily stood down from the committee after it received the official report from Holyrood’s ruling body which detailed Matheson’s four breaches of its code of conduct.
Speaking to reporters after the vote, Swinney appeared to acknowledge this crisis had been damaging. “You just have to play the ball as it lands. This was not part of my campaign plan,” he said.
Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, said before the vote Swinney’s decision to defend Matheson was proof the first minister’s promises to usher in a new era of integrity in politics were meaningless.
“It shows that this new politics he promised is out the window within two weeks of him becoming first minister, and this is ultimately a man that will always put his party before he’ll put the country,” Sarwar said.
The bitter row over the Tories’ stance on Matheson led to MSPs agreeing to a review of Holyrood’s complaints processes, which is expected to lead to Holyrood finally introducing recall petitions similar to those at Westminster.
That legislation allows an MP’s constituents to vote for a byelection if the MP is suspended for 10 days or more. However, a Tory motion after the sanctions vote calling for Matheson to resign did not win majority support.
After the vote, Matheson confirmed he would not stand down but said he accepted the suspension and fine. “I apologise and regret that this situation occurred. I acknowledge and accept the decision of parliament.
“[I] look forward to continuing to represent the people of Falkirk West, as I have done for many years.”
