Provost must stand down
Calls for Bolander to quit after £8000 spending spree at taxpayers’ expense
Critics call for Eva Bolander to resign after her £8000 spending spree
GLASGOW’S Lord Provost has been urged to resign after spending more than £8000 of public money on clothes and beauty products.
Labour MSP James Kelly accused SNP councillor Eva Bolander – who claimed £1150 for 23 pairs of shoes and £152 for underwear – of going on a “grotesque spending spree at the taxpayers’ expense”.
And Tory MSP Annie Wells blasted: “She must now do the right thing and stand down – there’s simply no way she can continue after these reports. She also owes the people of Glasgow an almighty apology.”
However, council leader Susan Aitken defended Bolander and denied the underwear claims were for pants.
The Daily Record yesterday revealed how Bolander, who was appointed Lord Provost in 2016, had claimed for more than 150 items since then.
Her predecessor, Sadie Docherty, had made no claims over a similar two-year period.
The Lord Provost, who represents the council at ceremonial events, got her nails done 20 times and claimed £751 for 10 taxpayer-funded haircuts.
A favoured shopping haunt was John Lewis, where she blew more than £500 in one splurge.
The story caused outrage as the jobs-cutting council has been accused of illegally denying temporary accommodation to homeless applicants.
Kelly said: “In just one trip to John Lewis she spent more on herself than what a worker being paid the national minimum wage earns in a whole week. She should pay it back and resign.”
Rhea Wolfson of the GMB union said Bolander was “horrendously out of touch”, adding: “She should walk a mile in the shoes of GMB members, like home carers working on foot every day to look after our most vulnerable citizens.
“That’s why we have written to the Lord Provost today urging her to do just that. Struggling council staff and many in the communities they serve can only dream about the lifestyle Councillor Bolander has been leading, so she should do the right and accept our invitation.
“If she can’t bring herself to do so, she should resign.”
In a tweet yesterday, Aitken wrote: “It’s part of the LP’s salary in Glasgow, it’s always been understood that there’s an additional cost of being civic leader. Underwear = not pants but long slips for under black tie dresses.”
Latest figures show Bolander has an allowance from Glasgow City Council of £41,545.96, including a £5000 civic allowance.
BETTE Midler once said: “One can rule the word with the right footwear”, which is clearly the philosophy of Glasgow’s Lord Provost Eva Bolander.
News that Bolander spent £8000 on clothes and shoes at the taxpayers’ expense makes me want to use my council tax bill as toilet paper.
I like a matching pair of knickers as much as the next girl but, really, a £152 bill for “underwear” paid for by the public purse is absolute pants.
The SNP councillor also made claims for make-up, £751 of haircuts and £358 of pampering that included getting her toenails painted.
At what point did the Lord Provost need to get her toes out for official business?
And did she have Vidal Sassoon exhumed to do her hair?
With £145 for hosiery, she should have been wearing the tights over her head.
Bollinger Bolander’s champagne tastes have been indulged while council workers struggle by on beer wages.
And while this city couldn’t survive without refuse collectors and carers, it could lose a city figurehead in a gold chain Jay-Z would consider flashy.
Bolander had promised us a new broom of “transparency and openness” when her party took over the council after years of labour rule.
Well, we can see right through her now, without the benefit of the £358 specs we bought for her.
She really should have gone to Specsavers since she was blind to such offensive optics.
Like many residents of Glasgow, I was glad to see a new regime take over the council after a series of corruption scandals. Some of those Labour councils had a stronger stink than a missed bin collection.
But Bolander’s predecessor, Labour’s Sadie Docherty, didn’t claim a penny, so it wasn’t all bad.
Few women could stomach the reality of their preening expenditure but when they foot the bill themselves, denial is perfectly acceptable. When Bolander was popping in an expense receipt for Bravissimo, surely she recognised the contempt it displayed for the city she represents. Glasgow is the most deprived local authority in Britain, where without food banks many people couldn’t feed their families.
If only she had walked a mile in their shoes, she might have realised the £308 she billed us for two pairs was a step too far.
On one day, she spent £500 on footwear in John Lewis because it is important one’s feet look their best when kicking the a**e out of one’s expenses.
We also paid for a £200 bespoke coat with an “art panel” in the back, which at the very least sounds like a crime against fashion.
Council leader Susan Aitken rushed to Bolander’s defence, saying there is “an additional cost of being civic leader”.
She tweeted: “Underwear = not pants but long slips for under black tie dresses, as I understand.”
Black slips, like in the two pack for £20 from Marks and Spencer?
And the “additional cost to being a civic leader” doesn’t explain the £200 creation from milliner to the stars, William Chambers.
Good job she accepted that free Rolls Royce to drive about in from Sir Boyd Tunnock or the hat would be done for in the Glasgow driech.
As it says on the car’s private registration, “G0” – yes, Bolander, it really is time to go.