ANAS Sarwar has been branded a hypocrite after his enormous taxpayer-footed bill for car expenses was revealed.
The Scottish Labour leader earlier this week called for Scottish ministers to abandon ministerial cars until ScotRail's reduced timetable debacle is sorted out and trains are restored to normal service.
But The National can reveal Sarwar’s own car bill was well above that of his colleagues and the second highest in the city he represents, according to the most recent statistics.
Sarwar racked up a whopping bill of £2268 in April 2020 to March 2021. He appears to only travel by car, having never claimed for train fares, unlike other MSPs for Glasgow, where Sarwar represents.
Gas-guzzling Labour MSPs were among the highest claimants in the city – with former MSP James Kelly (above) claiming the top spot with an eye-watering bill of £2289 in mileage and parking.
Kaukab Stewart, the MSP for Glasgow Kelvin, described Sarwar’s calls for her SNP frontbencher colleagues to ditch their ministerial cars as “the height of hypocrisy”.
She said: “He has one of the highest expenses of MSPs in Glasgow for car usage to get to and from work and appears to refuse to get the train.
"Instead of setting an example to his constituents by getting the train to work, which would not only be better for the environment, but would also keep the price down for the taxpayer, he is jumping into his car and racking up a bill at the expense of Scottish taxpayers.”
Stewart (below) encouraged Sarwar to check “his own behaviour and privileges before lecturing others” and slammed his party for getting into bed with the Tories in councils across Scotland after the local elections.
Her predecessor in the Glasgow Kelvin seat Sandra White claimed just £72.98 in expenses, for rail and taxi travel.
The second highest claimant was Clare Haughey, the SNP MSP for Rutherglen, who claimed £1843.60, in mileage and one taxi journey.
Labour MSP Pauline McNeill claimed £1769.40 for parking and miles – the third-highest claimant in Glasgow.
By contrast, the lowest expenses were claimed by Greens MSP Patrick Harvie – who claimed just £12.10 in train fares, around 187 times less than Sarwar.
The only other MSP not to claim any form of eco-friendly transport was Tory MSP Annie Wells, who claimed £695.20 in parking and miles.
Glasgow MSPs Nicola Sturgeon, Humza Yousaf and Ivan McKee have their travel expenses counted differently because they are ministers and details on the cost of their car journeys are not published routinely.
The Government Car Service cost taxpayers £903,002 which includes staffing costs and covers all Scottish ministers.
Sarwar is understood to live in the southside of Glasgow, an area relatively well-served by public transport.
But he is one of only four MSPs for the city out of 16 who exclusively claimed for car journeys.
The only non-minister MSP in the city for whom data was unavailable was Adam Tomkins, a former Tory list MSP. This suggests he may have claimed no travel on expenses.
Sarwar has been the recipient of racially motivated threats to his constituency office and Labour insiders say he travels exclusively by car.
Figures for the financial year 2021-2022 are yet to be published.
