HOLYROOD’S richest MSP has been banned from asking written parliamentary questions at Holyrood for two weeks after twice breaching the parliament’s code of conduct.

MSPs agreed unanimously to sanction millionaire Tory aristocrat Alexander Burnett, 44, for failing to register key business interests when asking about planning matters last year.

The Aberdeenshire West MSP, who is worth around £40m, was criticised over five written questions, two related to a planning application to which one of his companies had objected.

After a complaint by former SNP MSP Christian Allard, an investigation by ethics watchdogs, Holyrood’s standards committee recommended the two week ban last month.

It was the second breach by Mr Burnett the committee had considered in as many weeks, after he also failed to register interests in relation to questions about business rates.

Mr Burnett, whose full name is Alexander James Amherst Burnett of Leys, had tried to claim the complaints - both from SNP councillors - had been politically motivated.

But Standards convener Clare Adamson told MSPs that Mr Burnett had breached not just the code of conduct but a 2006 law.

She said declaring relevant interests was “an essential part of parliamentary transparency and accountability”.

Mr Burnett, who has since apologised, urged fellow Tories not to oppose the sanction.

He sat silently through Ms Adamson’s statement and gave his verbal assent to the ban, which will run from October 23 to November 5. 

Other MSPs have incurred more severe sanctions in the past, including suspension from parliament, but Mr Burnett is the first MSP specifically banned from tabling questions.

Mr Burnett, who was elected in 2016, is estimated to have the largest fortune of any MSP, jarring with Ruth Davidson's effort to portray her party as on the side of the everyday voter.

The businessman’s register of interests runs to more than 1000 words.

He is the beneficiary of multi-million pound Trusts, owns a property empire worth £20m and will continue to earn upwards of £100,000 for a maximum one day a month's work.

He is the sole owner of the AJA Burnett Estate in Aberdeenshire which has agricultural land, residential and commercial lettings as well as recreational, sporting and forestry interests.

The market value is worth around £10m, generating an annual income of up to £650,000.

Mr Burnett is expected to pay himself between £115,000 and £120,000 in 2016/17, despite expecting to spend a maximum of one day a month in the business.

He is a trustee and sole beneficiary of the Banchory Trust, which owns property in Aberdeenshire with a market value of between £14.6m and £14.7m.

He is also a trustee and potential beneficiary of the Fordie Trust, with property worth £4.5m.

While the trusts generate annual income of around £430,000 and £75,000 respectively, he says he does not expect to receive any income from either in the current parliament.

In addition he owns £10m of shares in the North Banchory Company, a property letting and development firm; £5.5m of shares in Bancon Developments Holdings Ltd, another property firm; almost £1m of shares in energy firm Hill of Banchory ESCo Ltd; and a further £140,000 of shares in another property business, the Inchmarlo Land Company Ltd.

His basic salary as an MSP is £61,778.