£11k roaming charges.

[Stroopwaffels]

For "parliamentary business" while Michael Matheson was on a family holiday in Morocco.

Such good value. And if you believe that it was all parliamentary emails etc rather than Netflix and YouTube you're as gullible as Humza Yousaf.

Also quite worrying that a Minister is too thick to disable roaming.

Exactly.

And Wendy Alexander had to resign over £950….

I think he should pay it back or if not he has to resign for wasting public money. it’s shocking neither Parliament of his party have checked his device to see what he was doing??

But it’s certainly been a wake up call to me for my next holiday!

He's agreed to pay it but it's too little to late imo. Shows a lack of good judgment from him and Humza, they should both resign/be sacked.

Wonder what persuaded him to pay it? I doubt it was his own moral compass as he appears to be devoid of one.

Isn't there a "Scottish Embassy" in Morocco he could have gone to use their secure connection?

Has he agreed to pay it now? Last I read he was covering £3k of it. Out of his expenses. So still costs the taxpayers

I think it was the news today that he was told "repeatedly" to bring his devices in to have sim card switched and didn't bother.

@greenacrylicpaint if you really really think that this chap was on dead important zoom calls, over christmas, while on holiday in morocco with his family, I worry for you.

My first thought was that's a lot of porn.

It's interesting that the ScotGov IT dept didn't look at the browsing history. The argument that it was parliamentary business is such nonsense. Check your emails, go on the BBC website, wee bit of Facebook, stream the latest episode of River City, check out the footie scores, national lottery numbers....

In the real world, most of us are very aware that international roaming costs £££ and check that out before we travel, or make sure we are connected to wi-fi before doing all of that. It's the "doesn't matter, someone else paying" which sticks in my throat.

Another example of the utter contempt the SNP has for the public, thinking we'll believe their fairy story that it was all legitimate government business.

Theory on Twitter is that he was live streaming 2 football matches that were on while he was away. Absolutely disgusting. Anyone in the public or private sector would be sacked for such a violation. But not an MSP.

At the end of the day if there was something so urgent he needed to attend a meeting by teams etc, then it would have been cheaper than £11k to fly him home and back.

It's obviously been lies and Humza has backed him up knowing it was lies. Neither has sufficient moral character to fulfil the roles they hold and should resign.

MSP's were told in 2018 that only £200 of charges would be covered - www.holyrood.com/news/view,michael-matheson-challenged-to-pay-11000-ipad-data-bill-as-tories-seek-investigation

He's done the right thing paying it back, but there should never have been ANY question over it in the first place. It was only because of the media stooshie that he paid the bill.

Yet another "professional politician" who cannot believe his luck that he has landed an extremely well-paid job in the Scottish government with limited skills and little experience and who will not give that up at any cost.

Think there was 3 Celtic games on while he was away away so no doubt he streamed them on the iPad.

No no, @Needthesunshine . It was most definitely parliamentary/constituency business and anyone who thinks otherwise is probably English, definitely a Toarie. 🙄

Over 7K on the 2nd of Jan just coincidence that was the old firm game 🤷‍♀️

Of course it was. Parliamentary business MY ARSE. What a lying little weasel of a man.

Does he think the rest of the population of Scotland is as stupid and gullible as the SNP? Idiot man - thought he could pay his way out of it quietly, and good on the Tories for pushing back on this.

£7k to watch a football match - he'd have been cheaper flying home. What an arse.

Perhaps he believed that watching the old firm game was necessary in order to bond with his constituents over his err…work. Or summat.

It's okay he remembered his kids used it to watch the football😎

The First Minister says we should give him the benefit of the doubt. Great, I'll spend £11k of someone else's money and plead the benefit of the doubt too. What planet are these morons on?

So it turns out he handed his kids access to a secure government device, and when he wasn’t looking they took it for a couple of hours to watch a footie match. But he didn’t realise that was what they were doing or that his secure government device had also gone missing.