NICOLA Sturgeon has been criticised after hiring a failed SNP MP as a special adviser, taking the bill for her spin doctor team to more than £1m a year.
The First Minister’s appointment of Callum McCaig, who was rejected by voters in Aberdeen South, restores the number of special advisers to its previous record of 14.
The former council leader, 32, who lost his seat to Tory MSP Ross Thomson at the general election, will now advise Ms Sturgeon on finance and local government.
Callum McCaig. Photo credit: Twitter
Special Advisers, or SpAds, are classed are temporary, rather than permanent, members of the civil service, and offer ministers political, policy and media advice.
The Scottish Government’s spin doctors earn between £51,000 and £84,000 each.
The Tories accused Ms Sturgeon of hypocrisy, noting she recently called the promotion of a failed Tory election candidate “an absolute abomination” and reward for failure.
Dr Ian Duncan became a peer and Scotland Office minister after failing to win in Perth.
Ms Sturgeon also appointed failed MSP Stewart Maxwell as a SpAd earlier this year.
In 2006, Alex Salmond said there was "certainly" a need for fewer SpAds, and when the SNP came to power a year later he initially made do with nine, before numbers crept up.
Total spending on Scotland’s SpAds has doubled since 2007 from £480,000 to £1.1m.
Tory Murdo Fraser said: “For some reason, when the UK Government appoints former politicians it is an ‘absolute abomination’, according to Nicola Sturgeon.
“Yet in recent times, she has appointed two former SNP politicians to the public payroll.
“People are increasingly seeing through the SNP’s hypocritical ways.”
A spokesman for the First Minister said: “This is ludicrous hypocrisy from the Tories given recent revelations that spending by the Tory Scotland Office on spin doctors has increased six-fold since they took power.
“While the Scotland Office exists to act as apologists for whatever the Tory government inflicts on Scotland, the Scottish Government is absolutely focussed on delivering for the people of Scotland, including in the increased areas of devolved responsibility – as well as tackling the serious economic challenges posed by the Tories’ extreme Brexit.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel