SHAMED MINISTER FORCED TO QUIT
Finance chief resigns over messages to boy Bombshell on day he was to deliver Budget Sturgeon’s misery as ‘successor’ disgraced
FINANCE Secretary Derek Mackay quit hours before he was due to deliver the Budget yesterday in a scandal over messages he sent to a 16-year-old boy.
The government was plunged into crisis after it was revealed he bombarded the boy with 270 online messages.
Mr Mackay was accused of ‘grooming’ the teenager by targeting him and attempting to meet up in person.
The ‘predatory’ private messages happened over a period of six months after he contacted the boy out of the blue.
In the messages, he told the boy he was ‘really cute’ and offered to pay travel costs if he attended a series of events.
Mr Mackay, an openly gay father of two children aged 12 and 15, announced his resignation yesterday morning.
He is in line for a £12,000 pay-off for losing his ministerial job and is facing growing calls to stand down as an MSP.
Junior finance minister Kate Forbes – not even a member of the Cabinet – was drafted in to present the Budget at the last minute.
In one of her darkest days as SNP leader, Miss Sturgeon announced Mr Mackay – regarded as her protégé and a potential successor – had been suspended by the party pending an investigation.
As well as losing his ministerial job and facing growing calls to stand down as an MSP, Mr Mackay now has an anxious wait to see if police consider his actions worthy of further investigation.
Miss Sturgeon issued a plea for the boy involved and his family to come forward and speak to her.
The dramatic developments plunged the SNP into another scandal, weeks before former leader Alex Salmond’s trial in relation to alleged sex crimes against ten women, which he denies.
Joanna Cherry, the SNP’s justice spokesman at Westminster and a Queen’s Counsel, said: ‘Grooming behaviour is totally unacceptable and must be condemned without fear or favour. The First Minister was right to accept Derek Mackay’s resignation and suspend him. The party’s disciplinary procedures must now take their course.’
Scottish Tory interim leader Jackson Carlaw quizzed Miss Sturgeon at First Minister’s Questions yesterday, comparing Mr Mackay’s behaviour to the NSPCC’s definition of grooming.
He said: ‘I understand the First Minister wants to defer to an investigation but the full content of the text exchanges between Mr Mackay and this young man are available online today.
‘How difficult is it not to reconcile his conduct with really the very worst connotation?’
The dossier of messages was first revealed by the Scottish Sun yesterday. It said that Mr Mackay first contacted the 16-year-old in August 2019 after following him on the social media website Instagram. He initiated a conversation, asking the boy where he was and what his plans were.
Over the next six months the exminister sent messages, inviting him to events and to help leaflet for him in his constituency.
The youngster told Mr Mackay he was aged just 16 on September 18. But the messages continued until February 1, 2020.
His texts pressed the boy to meet up and one even described the youngster as ‘really cute’.
Speaking to the newspaper, the young boy said: ‘When he asked me about my haircut and said I was cute, I was grossed out.’
The contact with the boy was made through a variety of social media messages and text messages from a personal phone.
It is understood Miss Sturgeon was first told some of the detail of the messages early on Wednesday evening, after the newspaper contacted one of her special advisers.
The First Minister then met Mr Mackay who offered to resign.
It was not publicly announced until shortly after 8am yesterday, when Miss Sturgeon’s spokesman issued a statement in Mr Mackay’s name. It said: ‘I have behaved foolishly and I am truly sorry.
‘I apologise unreservedly to the individual involved and his family.’
Miss Sturgeon said he had taken ‘full responsibility for his actions’ and apologised to the individual involved ‘and to those he has let down’. She only confirmed Mr Mackay had been suspended by the SNP at First Minister’s Questions yesterday lunchtime, after reading the full transcript of his exchanges with the boy.
Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard said: ‘Derek Mackay’s actions towards a schoolboy are beyond foolish. They are an abuse of power and nothing short of predatory. His suspension from the Scottish National Party is welcome, but he should go as a member of the Scottish parliament.’
Asked if Miss Sturgeon was happy with Mr Mackay describing his acts as ‘foolish’, her spokesman said: ‘Those are Derek’s words.’
Mr Mackay did not attend Holyrood yesterday and was not seen at home in Bishopton, Renfrewshire, where he lives with his boyfriend.
Miss Sturgeon said Mr Mackay will ‘need to reflect on’ whether he can continue as an MSP.
Asked if she believed he could continue as an MSP, she said: ‘He has issues to reflect on but the party having suspended him pending further investigation it is only right and proper that there is now space for that to happen.
‘Clearly there are issues to be reflected on but it is inconsistent for the party to suspend him pending further investigation and then for me to immediately pre-empt the outcome of that. But I could not be clearer about my views of the seriousness and severity of the issues we are discussing.’
Asked about Miss Cherry’s claim that he had displayed ‘grooming behaviour’, Miss Sturgeon said: ‘I haven’t seen comments by Joanna Cherry but I cannot be clearer about how serious this is.
‘It is for the police to decide if they think there is anything to be investigated.’
Mr Mackay will automatically be entitled to a £11,945 pay-off, which he will be awarded 90 days after he left office. It is understood opposition politicians will consider demanding a Standards Committee probe into whether to suspend him as an MSP.
Scottish Lib Dem leader Willie Rennie said: ‘These are troubling events. Derek Mackay should step down as an MSP.’
Comment – Page 16
‘Grooming must be condemned’
‘Actions are an abuse of power’