Nicola deputy paid thousands in overtime to ex-wife on staff

ANGUS Robertson signed off thousands of pounds in overtime payments to his ex-wife, The Scottish Mail on Sunday can reveal.

The SNP deputy leader approved at least 407 hours of overtime between 2010 and 2015 – the equivalent of more than ten weeks.

Carron Anderson was employed as a caseworker in his constituency office until May 2015. She was paid a basic salary of between £25,000 and £29,999.

The couple have divorced and Mr Robertson is now married to Jennifer Dempsie, a lobbyist and former special adviser to Alex Salmond. The figures were contained in a Freedom of Information response to The Scottish Mail on Sunday. They also show Jim Sheridan, former Labour MP for Paisley and Renfrewshire North, signed off 629 additional hours and overtime to a relative between 2010 and 2015 – the most of any MP, with Mr Robertson second.

More recently, SNP MP Paul Monaghan paid his brother for seven weeks overtime in 2015/16, and fellow Nationalist MP Corri Wilson paid her son for 118 hours in 2016/17.

Mr Robertson risks being one of the most high profile casualties of the General Election, with a recent poll predicting the Tories will steal his Moray seat.