Scotland’s First Minister says he was “assured” by his team that there was no use of publicly funded stamps for the SNP election campaign.
Holyrood officials are investigating the potential use of stamps paid for MSPs’ expenses following a complaint.
Under Holyrood regulations, MSPs receive up to £5,500 annually for stationery and postage costs, but are strictly prohibited from using the money for party political purposes.
Reports emerged on Sunday that a member of staff in John Swinney’s office had said the “stamp fairy is very useful when it comes to campaigns” in a WhatsApp group chat with other senior aides.
The Scottish First Minister said he was informed by staff that there had been no use of the SNP campaign grant.
“Obviously I discussed this with my team and I was assured that no parliamentary seals provided by Parliament were used to support electoral purposes,” he said on the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg.
He described the message regarding the “seal fairy” as “humorous comments made on a WhatsApp channel”.
“What is important is the assurance I had that parliamentary seals were not used for electoral purposes,” he said.
Asked if he was sure there was no use of public money for the SNP campaign, he said: “I’m confident about that.
“Obviously we have been involved in a fundraising campaign to support the election campaign.
“It’s been supported by the many members we have across the country.”
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‘Completely unacceptable’
Speaking to LBC later on Sunday, Swinney agreed it would be “completely unacceptable” for resources to be used in this way.
“The rules are clear that parliamentary seals acquired for this purpose must be used for parliamentary activities,” he said.
He added that it is “important” that those involved fully cooperate with parliamentary authorities.
Speaking after news of the investigation broke, a Scottish Parliament spokesperson said: “We take the use of publicly funded resources very seriously.
“Authorities are investigating the matter to determine whether there was any misuse of parliamentary resources.”
SNP has ‘serious questions’ to answer
Scottish Conservative chairman Craig Hoy said the SNP had “serious questions” to answer about the allegations.
“These leaked messages appear to show that officials are potentially misusing public resources,” he said.
“The SNP must be frank with parliamentary authorities about this situation.”
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