Michael Matheson has no option but to resign as an MSP, and almost everyone knows it – Scotsman comment

Michael Matheson must resign as an MSP (Picture: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

New poll shows a sizeable majority of the public thinks the former Health Secretary should quit Holyrood

Michael Matheson, the disgraced former Health Secretary, should resign as an MSP. That’s the view of this newspaper and of 65 per cent of respondents to a new poll by Savanta. “And the other 35 per cent thought he’d gone already?” we hear you ask.

Not quite. Twenty per cent did not express a view, with just 15 per cent thinking he should carry on. Who knew his family was quite so large? Perhaps that iPad data roaming charge of nearly £11,000, which he couldn’t fathom but still thought the taxpayer should pay, was for a whole legion of cousins, aunties etc eager to see their man remain at Holyrood.

The problem is, in addition to making the initial claim, he then decided to falsely claim the bill had not been run up through ‘personal use’ of the iPad, when he knew his children had used the data to watch football while in Morocco. Politicians who take public money to which they are not entitled, then lie about it, have only one option: resignation.

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