MEMORY ROSS
Tory chief rapped for forgetting to declare ref earnings.. on day he remembered to claim his expenses
Douglas Ross is facing more flak after claiming t axpayer - funded expenses on a day he failed to declare earnings for his lucrative sideline as a football referee.
The Scottish Tory leader – exposed for not declaring 16 games for which he was paid £ 7000 – has been forced to apologise again after forgetting to register a 17th game, for which he was paid £ 445.
But the politician, who is an MP, MSP and linesman, did remember to claim for almost £ 92 the same day on his MP’s expenses.
On November 1, 2020, when the MP for Moray was in Glasgow to off iciate at the delayed Scottish Cup semi-final match between Aberdeen and Celtic, he claimed £ 48.99 for parking and £ 43 for a return rail ticket.
He earned about £ 445 from the Scottish Football Association (SFA) for the cup tie, which Celtic won 2- 0. Yet despite the high-profile Hampden game, it was not declared on his newly updated MP Registers of Financial Interests.
Last week we revealed how Ross had broken rules by failing to disclose his earnings from 26 games within 28 days.
Scottish Labour’s business manager Neil Bibby said: “It seems Douglas Ross can remember to do his paperwork when it suits him. If he showed as much diligence declaring income as he does claiming it, he might not be in this mess.
“This contempt for the public is all too typical of a Tory party embroiled in sleaze.”
An SNP spokesman said: “Douglas Ross clearly has some detailed explaining to do – and his abject failure to clear this up a week on from the f irst revelations about his undeclared earnings just adds to the stench of Tory sleaze.”
Green MSP Gillian Mackay said: “These revelations raise a lot of questions for Douglas Ross and his party – and they need to be investigated in full.
“The current sleaze and scandal the Tories are mired in is because far too many of their MPs are happy to make excessive sums for themselves while punishing the people they are supposed to represent with bedroom tax, universal credit cuts and a cost-of-living crisis.”
Ross previously said that forgetting to disclose football match pay on his MP Registers of Financial Interests was an “error” and referred himself to Westminster’s parliamentary watchdog.
Despite being updated last week to account for the 16 missing referee gigs, his MP Registers of Financial Interests is still missing the cup match.
A spokesman for Ross said this would be rectif ied next week. He added: “Douglas has made the register of interests aware of this payment and has apologised. A member of his office is responsible for handling his expenses and they registered all claims as required by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority.
“His football payments were handled by Douglas personally, not his office, since they are an outside interest. He has held his hands up for making mistakes.”
Other expenses claims registered show how Ross, 37, claimed just £1 to cover the cost of a rail booking. He claimed nearly £ 60,000 in 2020/21 for staffing, office and travel costs.