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Scottish Health Secretary Michael Matheson has publicly admitted that charges were incurred as a result of his children’s use of their iPad during a family holiday in Morocco.
3 hours ago
An astronomical roaming law is rocking the Scottish government.
Last Thursday (17/11), Michael Matheson, Scottish Health Secretary, publicly admitted that his children’s use of his working iPad during a family holiday in Morocco had resulted in a charge of £11,000 (approximately R$65,000).
Roaming is the technology that allows a mobile device to make calls, send messages and surf the Internet even outside the coverage area in which it is registered.
The scandal came to light in a report by the British newspaper Telegraph.
Matheson said he would pay the full amount of the bill back to the state treasury, but initially insisted the device had been used for parliamentary activities.
Opposition leaders called for the health minister to resign.
Scottish Prime Minister Humza Yousaf said he did not believe Matheson had misled him.
“No, I don’t think Michael did it,” he told the BBC this Sunday (19/11).
According to the Scottish Prime Minister, Matheson always used the iPad for purposes related to his work as a minister and only discovered on November 9 that his children were using it.
“There is a legitimate question that people have been asking, and Michael spoke last week about whether he should have said publicly at that point that this was the reason he decided to pay the bill in full,” Yousaf said.
“He was trying to protect his children. For me, Michael who I have known for more than 15 years is a man of integrity and honesty.”
Yousaf added that Matheson could have handled the situation better, but said the minister had already apologized for the mistake.
Douglas Ross, leader of the Conservative Party in Scotland, which opposes Yousaf, accused Matheson of “hiding” from public scrutiny.
“This affects all levels of government in Scotland because none of them are willing to talk about really important issues,” he said.
“Because they cannot and do not want to defend this health minister, who should have already resigned and Humza Yousaf should have fired him.”
“The man in charge of the NHS in Scotland refuses to be audited,” he added.
Matheson, who became visibly emotional during a statement to the Scottish Parliament early last week, told his parliamentary colleagues that he was unaware that other members of his family had the device until November 9, after the scandal came to light a day earlier had used.
He said his children used the iPad as a router to allow other devices to access the Internet.
And he added that he did not mention this in his statement on the case on November 10 because he wanted to protect his children.
Anas Sarwar of the Labor Party, who also opposes Yousaf, called for the health minister to resign.
“I have great compassion for parents with teenage children, I also have two teenage children,” he said.
“It’s not about dates, it’s not about his family it’s about him misleading the public. That’s why I think he should resign,” he added.
According to Sarwar, the health minister and the prime minister continued to tell “untruths” even days after they separately told the truth about the astronomical bill.
“This is unacceptable in public life,” he said.
The SNP (Scottish National Party), which governs Scotland, was contacted by the BBC but did not comment at the time of writing.