‘Good luck’ email spells trouble
A MINISTER sent a ‘good luck’ message to a former Alex Salmond aide involved in the T in the Park cash row – despite later telling a Scottish parliament committee they were not friends.
Last week, Culture Secretary Fiona Hyslop said she had no relationship with Jennifer Dempsie, who set up a meeting that led to the £150,000 T in the Park grant.
Yet Miss Hyslop had sent Miss Dempsie a ‘good luck’ message on social media when she was bidding to become a Nationalist MSP.
In a Facebook message on June 20, Miss Hyslop told her she would be a ‘great asset’ to the Scottish parliament and referred to her as ‘Jen’.
While being questioned by the education and culture committee last week over the grant, Miss Hyslop said she knew of Miss Dempsie as she had worked as an SNP special adviser – but said since that role had ended, there was ‘no reason why anybody in my office would know who she was’.
She added: ‘I have not had a relationship with her in the past six years.’
In June, though, she posted on Miss Dempsie’s then campaign page: ‘Good luck Jen, you’d make a formidable SNP candidate and a great asset to the Scottush [sic] Parliament.’ Miss Dempsie replied: ‘Thank you Fiona, X.’
Miss Hyslop told the committee T in the Park bosses had threatened to pull out of Scotland if she did not hand over the money. But MSPs asked if the grant was ‘fraudulent’ and stank of cronyism after meetings were set up by Miss Dempsie, a former aide to Mr Salmond.
Miss Hyslop argued she had stood up for the festival and the tens of thousands who attend every year – but admitted she acted at the behest of company shareholders worried about profits.
An SNP spokesman said: ‘A single online exchange does not constitute a friendship or relationship. In any case, this particular Facebook exchange was already in the public domain before last week’s committee session.’
Meanwhile, Miss Hyslop is facing fresh calls to go back before the Holyrood committee, with opposition MSPs saying questions about the grant remain unanswered.