Taxpayers’ £80,000 bill for rich Duke’s trip

TAXPAYERS will foot the £80,000 bill for Scotland’s largest private landowner to spend a week at the Queen’s official residence.

The Duke of Buccleuch, whose family enjoys an estimated £213 million fortune, will stay at Holyrood Palace, Edinburgh, while he attends the General Assembly of the Kirk.

He represents Her Majesty in his new role as Lord High Commissioner.

Some £80,000 of public money will be spent on catering alone during his eight-day visit, where he will be “treated like the Queen”.

Neil Findlay, the Labour MSP, hit out, saying: “The Duke of Buccleuch is one of the wealthiest individuals in the country.

“He is the one of the last people who should be enjoying free digs and a lavish £80,000 hospitality budget at Holyrood Palace.”

Richard Walter John Montagu Douglas Scott, 10th Duke of Buccleuch, aged 63, was educated at Eton and Oxford University.

The Queen honoured the Duke with a Knight of the Thistle last month, and appointed him Lord High Commissioner, which makes him her personal represent ative at the General Assembly.

The annual gathering, which the Lord High Commissioner attends on The Queen’s behalf as an observer, starts on Saturday, May 19.

The Scottish Government contract for the “provision of catering services to the Lord High Commissioner” covers an eight-day period and is valued at £80,000.

A source close to the church said he will be “treated like the Queen” while he is there.