Michael Matheson: Furore over £11,000 iPad bill ‘completely blown out of all proportion’, says shamed MSP
The furore surrounding Michael Matheson’s near £11,000 iPad data roaming bill was “completely blown out of all proportion”, according to the shamed MSP.
The SNP politician stepped down as Scotland’s health secretary last year after questions were raised over the eye-watering invoice.
The Falkirk West MSP had initially billed taxpayers before U-turning, claiming the device had only been used for parliamentary work during a family holiday to Morocco.
It later emerged his teenage sons had been using the work iPad as a hotspot to stream football while on the trip.
Mr Matheson was later suspended from the Scottish parliament and docked wages for breaching the MSP code of conduct.
Mr Matheson, who was first elected as an MSP in 1999, was questioned about his ministerial career during an interview with the Institute for Government (IFG) think tank as part of its Ministers Reflect series.
During the talk, held in October last year but published on Friday, he said his opponents had sought to take “political advantage” of the situation.
Mr Matheson said: “I think the thing that you need to realise is that when you become a minister, if you do make a mistake, you can end up in the eye of a political storm.
“The thing that acted as a big catalyst for me was that, as soon as the general election was called, everything was put on steroids.
“It became a massive issue because folk saw a political advantage they could get from it. It just got completely blown out of all proportion, in my view.”
Mr Matheson during First Minister’s Questions last May. Pic: PA
Mr Matheson was the net zero, energy and transport secretary in Nicola Sturgeon’s government at the time of the family holiday around Christmas in 2022.
Ahead of the trip he failed to replace an outdated SIM card, which led to increased data use costs.
Mr Matheson, who was later appointed health secretary in March 2023 under then first minister Humza Yousaf, told Holyrood he was unaware that his sons had used the iPad as a hotspot when he initially submitted the bill.
He claimed he was told the truth by his wife after the story sparked a public outcry.
Following his wife’s admission, Mr Matheson initially failed to publicly mention his sons’ involvement.
Instead, he continued to insist the iPad was only used for parliamentary work and blamed the outdated SIM card for the excessive bill.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Mr Matheson’s sons racked up the near £11,000 iPad bill streaming football abroad
When questioned by journalists days after he knew the truth, he continued to deny the iPad was used for personal use until he made a statement to Holyrood.
Mr Matheson quit as health secretary ahead of the conclusion of a probe by the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body (SPCB), which ruled he had breached the MSP code of conduct.
Read more from Sky News:
Growth is a fight Starmer and Reeves want to have – and they can’t afford to lose
Majority of public support cap on political donations, poll finds
When asked if there were any lessons to be learned for other ministers, he told the IFG: “If I look back, the lesson I would say is recognising how unforgiving the political space is that you’re operating in.
“In the end, it was my desire to try and avoid the press knowing about what my son had done.
“It was completely unforgiving, despite the fact that when you offer it up, then they say you’re using it as a cover. Actually, no, I’m not, but I’m telling you that’s what’s happened.
“So, I think what I would say to ministers is that it is quite unforgiving at times when something like that happens, despite what your background is and how long you’ve been in government and how you’ve always tried to avoid getting the government into any difficult positions.”
Mr Matheson being questioned by journalists in November 2023, on the day the SPBC announced it was launching a probe into his conduct
He added: “When you’re a backbencher, if you do make an error, it’s not the same.
“But when you’re a minister and you’re a senior minister, you’re going to get chased down and you quite literally get chased down.”
Mr Matheson said a number of people reached out in support during the scandal.
He also said the scrutiny had a “significant impact” on his family, which included taking his teenage sons out of school and his wife becoming “unwell with stress”.
He added: “It’s in the public record that our house got broken into.”
When questioned about Mr Matheson’s latest comments, First Minister John Swinney said: “The parliament’s worked its way through all of these issues and it’s come to its conclusions and those conclusions stand.
“We just have to consider that as the conclusion that parliament has arrived at.”
The Scottish Conservatives criticised Mr Matheson’s remarks.
MSP Rachael Hamilton, the party’s deputy leader, said: “Taxpayers will be outraged that Michael Matheson is trying to downplay the scandal that ultimately forced him to resign in disgrace.
“The public were rightly furious that the then SNP health secretary thought it acceptable to ask them to foot the bill for his [iPad] expenses.
“He then repeatedly lied to them and parliament and refused to say sorry for what he had done.
“No wonder Scots are so disillusioned with senior SNP figures at Holyrood when they continue to hold voters in such contempt.”
It’s like The Godfather, one reformed drug trafficker tells me.
The mythical gangster film centred on an organised crime dynasty locked in a transfer of power.
Communities in Scotland currently have a front row seat to a new war of violence, torture, and taunts as feuding drug lords and notorious families grapple for control of Glasgow and Edinburgh.
There have been more than a dozen brutal attacks over the past six weeks – ranging from fire bombings to attacks on children and gun violence.
A firebomb attack in Scotland
Victims left for dead, businesses up in flames
Gangsters have filmed themselves setting fire to buildings and homes connected to the associates and relatives of their bitter rivals.
The main aim, they boast, is to “exterminate” the opposition.
The taunting footage, accompanied by the song Keep On Running by The Spencer Davis Group, has been plastered over social media as part of a deliberate game of goading.
A 12-year-old boy and 72-year-old woman were left for dead when teenagers wearing balaclavas burst into a home in north Glasgow.
Garages and businesses have gone up in flames. Shots were fired at an Edinburgh house.
Signals are being sent of who wants control of Scotland’s dark criminal underworld.
A firebomb attack that saw a man throw an incendiary device through a building window
The fire attack set to the song Keep On Running by The Spencer Davis Group
What’s caused the gang war?
The former director of the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency, Graeme Pearson, explains how a “vacuum of leadership” is playing a part.
Last October, Glasgow-based cocaine kingpin Jamie Stevenson, known as The Iceman, was jailed after orchestrating a £100m cocaine shipment stashed in banana boxes from South America.
The mob leader was one of Britain’s most wanted, running his business like another on-screen criminal enterprise: The Sopranos.
The 59-year-old fugitive went on the run before eventually being hunted and apprehended by police while out jogging in the Netherlands.
Jamie Stevenson. Pic: Police Scotland
Pic: Crown Office
‘Old scores to settle’
But paranoia was running rife about how this notorious gangster could be brought down. Was there a grass? Was it one of their own?
It further fuelled divisions and forced new alliances to be forged across Scotland’s organised criminal networks.
It wasn’t until The Iceman case came to court that it was revealed an encrypted messaging platform, known as EncroChat, had been infiltrated by law enforcement.
It ultimately led to Stevenson pleading guilty.
Ex-senior drug enforcement officer Mr Pearson told Sky News: “It is a complex picture because you have got people who are in prison who still want to have influence outside and look after what was their business.
“On the outside you’ve got wannabes who are coming forward, and they think this is an opportunity for them, and you have got others have old scores to settle that they could not settle when crime bosses were around.”
Read more from Sky News:
Scientists find strongest evidence yet of aliens
Widow has ‘no regrets’ over helping husband’s suicide
Graeme Pearson
Mr Pearson describes a toxic mix swirling to create outbursts of violence unfolding in Scotland.
He concluded: “All that mixes together – and the greed for the money that comes from drugs, and from the kudos that comes from being a ‘main man’, and you end up with competition, violence, and the kind of incidents we have seen over the past four to six weeks.”
New wave of violence ‘barbaric’
Glasgow man Mark Dempster is a former addict, dealer, and drug smuggler who is now an author and respected counsellor helping people quit drinking and drugs.
He describes the “jostle for power” as not a new concept among Glasgow’s high profile gangland families.
Mark Dempster
“There is always going to be someone new who wants to control the markets. It is like The Godfather. There is no difference between Scotland, Albania, or India,” he said.
Mr Dempster suggests a shift in tactics in Glasgow and Edinburgh in recent weeks, with 12-year-olds being viciously attacked in the middle of the night.
“It is barbaric. When young people, children, get pulled into the cross fire. It takes it to a different level.
“At least with the old mafiosa they had an unwritten rule that no children, no other family members. You would deal directly with the main people that were your opposition.”
Police Scotland is racing to get control of the situation, but declined to speak to Sky News about its ongoing operation.
It has been suggested 100 officers are working on this case, with “arrests imminent”.
But this is at the very sharp end of sophisticated criminal empires where the police are not feared, there are fierce vendettas and, clearly, power is up for grabs.
UK
Laws may need to be bolstered to crack down on exploitation of child ‘influencers’, senior MP suggests
Laws may need to be strengthened to crack down on the exploitation of child “influencers”, a senior Labour MP has warned.
Chi Onwurah, chair of the science, technology and innovation committee, said parts of the Online Safety Act – passed in October 2023 – may already be “obsolete or inadequate”.
Politics latest: Follow live updates
Experts have raised concerns that there is a lack of provision in industry laws for children who earn money through brand collaborations on social media when compared to child actors and models.
This has led to some children advertising in their underwear on social media, one expert has claimed.
Those working in more traditional entertainment fields are safeguarded by performance laws, which strictly govern the hours a minor can work, the money they earn and who they are accompanied by.
The Child Influencer Project, which has curated the world’s first industry guidelines for the group, has warned of a “large gap in UK law” which is not sufficiently filled by new online safety legislation.
Official portrait of Chi Onwurah.
Pic: UK Parlimeant
The group’s research found that child influencers could be exposed to as many as 20 different risks of harm, including to dignity, identity, family life, education, and their health and safety.
Ms Onwurah told Sky News there needs to be a “much clearer understanding of the nature of child influencers ‘work’ and the legal and regulatory framework around it”.
She said: “The safety and welfare of children are at the heart of the Online Safety Act and rightly so.
“However, as we know in a number of areas the act may already be obsolete or inadequate due to the lack of foresight and rigour of the last government.”
Victoria Collins, the Liberal Democrat spokesperson for science, innovation and technology, agreed that regulations “need to keep pace with the times”, with child influencers on social media “protected in the same way” as child actors or models.
“Liberal Democrats would welcome steps to strengthen the Online Safety Act on this front,” she added.
‘Something has to be done’
MPs warned in 2022 that the government should “urgently address the gap in UK child labour and performance regulation that is leaving child influencers without protection”.
They asked for new laws on working hours and conditions, a mandate for the protection of the child’s earnings, a right to erasure and to bring child labour arrangements under the oversight of local authorities.
However, Dr Francis Rees, the principal investigator for the Child Influencer Project, told Sky News that even after the implementation of the Online Safety Act, “there’s still a lot wanting”.
“Something has to be done to make brands more aware of their own duty of care towards kids in this arena,” she said.
Dr Rees added that achieving performances from children on social media “can involve extremely coercive and disruptive practices”.
“We simply have to do more to protect these children who have very little say or understanding of what is really happening. Most are left without a voice and without a choice.”
Read more from Sky News:
Four killed as cable car crashes to ground near Naples
Two dead and five injured in shooting at Florida university
The researcher pointed to one particular instance, in which children were advertising an underwear brand on social media.
She said: “The kids in the company’s own marketing material or their own media campaigns are either pulling up the band of the underwear underneath their clothing, or they’re holding the underwear up while they’re fully clothed.
“But whenever you look at any of the sponsored content produced by families with children – mum, dad, and child are in their underwear.”
Dr Rees said it is “night and day” in terms of how companies are behaving when they have responsibility for the material, versus “the lack of responsibility once they hand it over to parents with kids”.
-
Sports2 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports1 year agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Business3 years agoBank of England’s extraordinary response to government policy is almost unthinkable | Ed Conway