I will not dispute the information and data that has been given. That is the one time of the year that our constituents take a break and decide not to email us, so I struggle to understand how that could be achieved.
As I said earlier—the public might not know this—we all get emails from Parliament staff reminding us when there are changes to broadband providers; several, in fact, if we do not respond. We also get emails before recesses, asking us whether we are going on holiday and where, so that packages can be adjusted. Nobody in the Parliament can say that they did not know.
When the parliamentary authorities raised the matter with Michael Matheson on at least four occasions, he denied that there was any problem whatsoever. He had sight of the detailed bill and, to be frank, when it was released to the public, it took people on Twitter all of two minutes to work out that usage was highest when football games were on. It was obvious. Michael Matheson is not a stupid man. I believe that he knew, and that he said nothing. The tragic thing is that he has paid a high price for it. His reputation is in tatters, he has had to resign from ministerial office and he has been sanctioned by the Parliament. Had he held his hands up, apologised and paid back the money straight away, it might have caused a day’s uncomfortable headlines, but many of us who have children would have understood. Teenage boys love football and it is a passion that many will share with their fathers. If it had been my daughter, I would have known, but in her case, she would have been watching either Netflix or Taylor Swift’s “Eras” tour. We know these things about our families. To be frank, the problem was not the original sin but the cover-up, lies and obfuscation. There was no admission of error, no apology, no contrition. Instead, there has been denial, deflection and dishonesty.
As I said before, the most problematic for me were the questions from Parliament staff about the scale of the iPad bill and Michael Matheson’s flat denials. The pattern of denial—misleading the Parliament, misleading the press and, ultimately, misleading the people of Scotland—continued right up to the end and showed contempt for all three. That is a profound error of judgment from someone who should have known better.
Michael Matheson has been in the Parliament since 1999. He has been a Government minister for much of the SNP’s tenure, and I regret the fact that his career is, in effect, over. Ultimately, it should be for the people of Falkirk West to decide whether they want Michael Matheson to continue to represent them, but their voice is being denied because this Parliament has no provision to recall MSPs.
The UK Parliament can initiate a recall petition if a member is suspended for 10 days or more. We have seen that used in Scotland in the case of Margaret Ferrier, who travelled while infected with Covid and recklessly endangered the safety of others.
