Disgraced Mackay gets £53k as ousted MSPs share £2.2m
43 paid from taxpayers’ pot
DISGRACED former finance secretary Derek Mackay was among 43 MSPs sharing a taxpayerfunded £2.2million when they left politics last year.
Every MSP who was defeated at last year’s elections or opted not to stand shared the huge pot, awarded to help them adjust to life after politics.
The ‘resettlement’ grants varied from £32,325, or half a year’s salary for those who have been an MSP for one to six years, to £64,470, or a full year’s salary for those with 12 or more years’ service.
In addition, MSPs claimed
‘Grants should be scrapped’
£42,227 in ‘winding up’ expenses for costs relating to closing down their offices, ranging from window cleaning to waste disposal and paper shredders.
Mr Mackay received a £53,725 resettlement grant even though he hadn’t set foot in parliament for the last 15 months of his ten years as an MSP.
He has since set up a consultancy business, Lochan Associates, which will conduct ‘management consultancy activities’.
He quit as Finance Secretary in February 2020 following revelations that he bombarded a 16year-old boy with 270 online messages, including one where he called him ‘cute’ and another where he asked him to dinner.
In addition to the resettlement grant, Mr Mackay also claimed £180 in ‘winding up’ expenses for signage removal and £7.55 to settle utilities bills.
John O’Connell, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: ‘This huge sum of money will be frustrating for taxpayers facing a cost of living crisis.
‘With MSPs effectively on fixedterm contracts, there can be no justification for them being entitled to taxpayers’ cash when they leave office. These resettlement grants should be scrapped.’
Other claims for winding up expenses included former Labour leader Iain Gray spending £239 on a paper-shredding company, while former Communities Minister Aileen Campbell claimed £270 for confidential waste disposal and eight MSPs racked up a £217 bill for window cleaning.
Of those who departed at the last election, 15 had been an MSP for long enough to secure the full £64,470 resettlement grant.
The winding up expenses only cover the period from April to June 2021 and further expenses are likely to be published when the next quarter is made available in the coming months, as MSPs have six months to claim costs from the election day.
In addition, staff salary and redundancy payments will not be released until the end of year expenses are published.
The Scottish parliament confirmed that nobody opted to repay any of the resettlement grant.
A spokesman added: ‘The winding up provision enables MSPs to fulfil their responsibilities as an employer and meet the cost of staff redundancies as well as fulfil lease and other contractual obligations when closing offices.’