John Swinney has come under fire for using his ministerial limousine to attend an SNP campaign stunt, then parking it in a bus stop. The First Minister took his official car to the Barras in Glasgow on April 11 to campaign alongside an SNP candidate, where they posed for photographs wearing cowboy hats.
The black ministerial vehicle is used by Swinney for all his travel, despite the SNP spending thousands on an official campaign bus featuring a giant picture of him. Last week, Swinney described the bus as a visual signal of the intensity of the campaign.
Russell Findlay, who spotted the car while visiting the Barras the same day, said Swinney may have breached government rules. These rules state: Official transport should not normally be used for travel arrangements arising from party or private business, except where this is justified on security grounds.
The Scottish Conservative leader said: This illustrates how out of touch and arrogant Swinney is. Not only does he think he has already won the election, he thinks the rules do not apply to him. I knew it was out of order when I clocked John Swinney's personal limo parked illegally in a bus stop. But it gets worse with the discovery that he was using this taxpayer-funded car for an SNP election event. He turned up at the Barras to get his photo taken for some party-political stunt before being whisked away again by his driver.
Mr Findlay added: Given his attitude towards using the public purse for his own transport, it is no surprise that he defended his health secretary for taking a ministerial limo to the football.
Scottish Labour's finance spokesman Michael Marra said: John Swinney and the SNP are taking taxpayers for a ride. If John Swinney has an explanation for how campaigning in a cowboy hat and an SNP-branded jacket could be considered government business, I would like to hear it.
In 2024, Health Secretary Neil Gray was forced to apologise to MSPs after taking his ministerial limo to football matches to see his team play, bringing along friends and relatives for the taxpayer-funded ride. Angela Constance later admitted using her ministerial vehicle to go to an Old Firm game with her son. In 2017, Nicola Sturgeon was urged to investigate breaches of the ministerial code after nine SNP ministers used taxpayer-funded limos to travel from the party's General Election manifesto launch in Perth.
The nationalists have been accused of targeting drivers with a rise in the use of low emission zones in cities, and a focus in the latest budget on trains, buses and active travel measures to encourage more people to ditch their vehicles.
The SNP said it would not comment on the First Minister's travel arrangements for security reasons.
