TORY FACES NEW PARLY COMPLAINTS
Rich MSP reported to watchdogs
A MONEYBAGS MSP who was carpeted for twice breaching Holyrood’s code of conduct is facing further allegations of wrongdoing.
Alexander Burnett was banned from asking written parliamentary questions at Holyrood for two weeks for failing to declare key business interests when asking about planning matters last year.
MSPs agreed to sanction the Aberdeenshire West MSP after the Record revealed he had asked parliamentary questions about a planning application to which one of his companies had objected.
We can now reveal that further complaints have been lodged with standards watchdogs about questions and motions Burnett lodged at the Parliament.
A constituent complained after Burnett, who has a property empire and is worth about £40million, asked questions about waste management licences and the process for recategorising business premises as domestic properties.
He also lodged a motion praising a company he has links with through a timber marketing co-operative.
His parliamentary register of interest shows he earns more than £100,000-a-year for a maximum one day a month’s work. That’s on top of his £61,778 MSP salary.
An SNP source said: “You’d think he might have learned his lesson, having been admonished and sanctioned by Holyrood in recent weeks for a string of standards breaches.”
The Commissioner for Ethical Standards in Public Life in Scotland declined to comment.
A spokesman for the Scottish Conservatives said Burnett had not been contacted by the watchdogs about a complaint, adding: “This has all the hallmarks of a politically motivated attack.”