Matheson’s suspension has come at a terrible time for the SNP

The Scottish parliament has voted to suspend former SNP cabinet minister Michael Matheson for 27 sitting days and dock his salary for 54 calendar days. It comes after Matheson was found to have broken the MSP code of conduct on expenses and use of parliamentary resources. Matheson ran up an £11,000 mobile data bill during a family holiday in Morocco and tried to have the taxpayer pick up the tab. Despite initially claiming no knowledge of how such a large bill was incurred, he later said that his sons had run up the charges while using the device’s hotspotting function to stream Celtic football matches. 

The vote broke down 64 in favour of sanctioning Matheson, with 63 abstaining. This reflects the decision by SNP leader John Swinney to oppose the recommended penalty and attack the standards committee process as tainted by a Tory member who had previously condemned Matheson. Matheson is, as Swinney freely admits, a personal friend and the First Minister has come in for criticism for appearing to put standing by his mate ahead of parliamentary standards.