£10k aid for firms was handed to ‘Yes’ campaign office instead

A PRO-INDEPENDENCE campaign hub was handed £10,000 from a fund that was supposed to help businesses recover from the coronavirus pandemic.

Critics condemned the ‘appalling misuse of public funds’ after the grant was awarded to a Yes Inverclyde office.

Inverclyde Council last night confirmed it had launched an investigation.

Scottish Conservative Covid recovery spokesman Murdo Fraser said: ‘Hardpressed businesses in Inverclyde will be outraged that money earmarked to help them through the pandemic has been squandered on SNP propaganda.’

Inverclyde Council said the grant was made after the organisation said it was promoting a ‘philosophical position’.

But concerns were raised after photos on social media showed the Greenock shop being used to store and distribute 35,000 ‘Yes papers’ produced by the SNP, The National newspaper and the Believe in Scotland campaign group.

Nationalist MP Ronnie Cowan – who started Yes Inverclyde in 2012 – posted an image from inside the shop, and said: ‘Good to see @InverclydeYes gearing up for a big delivery in #inverclyde.’

The money came from a £120million Covid business support fund, which was distributed by local authorities on behalf of the Scottish Government to help ‘mitigate the short-term financial challenges’ of the virus on businesses.

The Scottish Sun newspaper reported that Inverclyde Council’s interim director of finance and corporate governance Alan Puckrin had said in an email the grant was approved on evidence ‘including the applicant’s stance that the activity in the premises was not party political but the promotion of a philosophical position’.

An Inverclyde Council spokesman said: ‘The matter has now been referred to our corporate fraud service to review.’

A spokesman for Mr Cowan told The Sun he ‘has no involvement in the running of the organisation’. Yes Inverclyde failed to reply to a comment request.