John Swinney backs down over disgraced friend Michael Matheson

John Swinney is set to vote to impose a record punishment on his disgraced friend Michael Matheson after his defence of him threatened to derail the SNP’s election campaign.

Nationalist MSPs are expected to on Wednesday back a recommendation that the former health secretary, who falsely charged the taxpayer £11,000 in iPad roaming charges, is suspended from Holyrood for 27 sitting days and loses 54 days of salary.

It is a major about-turn for Mr Swinney, who last week insisted he would “not support the sanction” proposed by Holyrood’s standards committee.

He claimed the process had been compromised by public comments made by a Tory MSP who sat on the committee about the expenses scandal.

However, the First Minister looked set to climb down after opposition parties attempted to turn Mr Swinney’s defence of Mr Matheson into a major election issue.

The Scottish Tories this week held a campaign event in Mr Matheson’s constituency with party leader Douglas Ross posing with a ‘Sack Matheson’ iPad.

Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, accused Mr Swinney of “playing straight out of Boris Johnson’s Tory sleaze playbook” by supporting Mr Matheson.

The SNP climbdown came after it appeared the 27-day suspension was certain to be endorsed by parliament anyway after the Scottish Greens said they would support it.

The party backed away from attempting to water down the sanctions against Mr Matheson and deputy First Minister Kate Forbes instead proposed an amendment noting concerns at “media leaks” and the investigation report being “open to bias and prejudice”.

The First Minister’s earlier decision to back Mr Matheson has dominated the opening days of the general election campaign in Scotland, with SNP candidates reportedly expressing fury and exasperation.

MSPs will on Wednesday afternoon hold two votes on the former health secretary, the first on whether to endorse the punishment recommended by the standards committee.

The second vote will also take place on a Tory motion demanding that the former health secretary resign as the Falkirk West MSP, triggering a by-election.

Although voters do not have the power to recall their MSP and sack them, the sanction was more than double the 10-day threshold for this to happen with MPs. However, this second vote is unlikely to pass thanks to the opposition of the Greens.

“Any attempt by the SNP to try and water down the proposed sanctions would be unacceptable to us,” a spokesman for the Greens said. “A line should now be drawn under the matter.

“Reform of the current arrangements for considering sanctions against MSPs is urgently needed. We have real issues about the process and pre-judging of this case, and we will be seeking an amendment to reflect those concerns.”

Mr Matheson racked up the £10,941.74 bill for his parliamentary iPad over Christmas 2022 during a family holiday in Morocco, which had an outdated EE sim card.

He then told Holyrood’s authorities the charges were all in respect of constituency work. The parliament allowed him to use his taxpayer-funded expenses to fund £3,000 of the bill and provided the £7,935.74 balance from its own budget.

Mr Matheson paid back the money from his own pocket on Nov 10 last year, two days after the Telegraph disclosed the bill. He told the media there had been no personal use of the device.

However, in a statement to MSPs, he admitted he had found out on Nov 9 that his sons had used the iPad at an internet hotspot to watch football matches.

Mr Matheson finally resigned as health secretary in February after the Scottish Parliament’s cross-party corporate body (SPCB) completed its investigation, which concluded he had breached two sections of the MSP code of conduct.

Mr Ross, the Scottish Tory leader, warned that public trust in Scotland’s politicians would be “destroyed” unless MSPs backed his party’s motion demanding Mr Matheson also resign.

He said: “Michael Matheson would have been sacked in any other walk of life for what he did. That is why opinion polls show the vast majority believe he has to go.”