Scottish Health Secretary Michael Matheson publicly admitted that the charges stemmed from his children’s use of an iPad during a family holiday in Morocco.
An astronomical roaming bill shakes the Scottish government.
Scottish Health Secretary Michael Matheson last Thursday (17/11) publicly admitted that his children’s use of his functional iPad during a family holiday in Morocco had resulted in a charge of £11,000 (about 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 through a report published by the British newspaper The Telegraph.
Matheson said he would return the full amount of the bill to the public purse, but initially insisted the device had been used for parliamentary activities.
Opposition leaders demanded the resignation of the Minister of Health.
Scottish First Minister Humza Yousaf said he did not believe Matheson had misled him.
“No, I don’t think Michael did it,” he told the BBC on Sunday (11/19).
According to the Scottish Prime Minister, Matheson had always used the iPad for purposes connected to his activities as a minister and only discovered its use by his children on 9 November.
“There’s a legitimate question that people have been asking, and Michael talked about last week, about whether he should, at that point, be publicly honest about the fact that this is why he chose to pay the full bill,” Youssef added. He said.
“He was trying to protect his children. To me, Michael – who I’ve known for over 15 years – is a man of integrity and honesty.”
Youssef 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, who opposes Youssef, accused Matheson of “hiding” from public scrutiny.
“This affects all levels of government in Scotland because none of them are willing to talk about issues that really matter,” he said.
“Because they cannot and will not defend this Minister of Health, who should have already resigned, and Hamza Yusuf should have fired him.”
He added: “The man in charge of the NHS in Scotland is not under scrutiny.”
Matheson – who became visibly emotional during a statement to the Scottish Parliament early last week – told fellow parliamentarians that he was not aware that other members of his family had used the device until November 9, after the scandal came to light, a day earlier.
He said his children used the iPad as a router to allow Internet access to other devices.
He added that he did not mention this in his statement about the case on November 10 because he wanted to protect his children.
Anas Sorour, from the Labor Party, which also opposes Youssef, called for the resignation of the Minister of Health.
“I have a lot of sympathy for parents who have teenage children, and I also have two teenage children,” he said.
He added: “It’s not about the data, it’s not about his family, it’s about him misleading the public. That’s why I think he should resign.”
According to Sarwar, the Health Minister and the Prime Minister continued to tell “lies” days after they separately told the truth about the astronomical bill.
He added: “This is unacceptable in public life.”
The BBC contacted the Scottish National Party, which governs Scotland, but it had not commented at the end of this report.
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