Keeping it in the family: Fifth of MSPs have relative on their staff

Published on Thursday 27 November 2008 21:03

ONE in five MSPs have a family member on their staff, it emerged yesterday, prompting concerns over nepotism.

Nicola Sturgeon, the Deputy First Minister, who employs her mother, Joan, as a constituency assistant, is among 25 MSPs who employ relatives.

The information was revealed in a new register for Holyrood created in response to concerns about the way Westminster MPs were employing members of their families.

The proportion of MSPs employing relatives is higher than that with MPs at Westminster, where the practice caused a storm of controversy.

Patrick Harvie, the Green MSP, has criticised the practice and said MSPs should make more of an effort to recruit staff properly, by advertising positions in newspapers.

Pointing out that MSPs from his party had never employed family members, he said: "We wouldn't support an outright ban, but it is hardly something which builds public confidence in the Scottish Parliament."

The 25 MSPs – 11 SNP, 11 Labour, two Tories and one Liberal Democrat – employ husbands, wives, sons, daughters and, in some cases, in-laws. No salary details have been given, on confidentiality grounds. MSPs can claim up to 56,650 for staff.

Michael McMahon, Labour's business manager, is the only one to employ two family members – his wife, Margaret, is an office manager and his daughter, Siobhan, works part-time for both him and Jim Murphy, the Secretary of State for Scotland.

He said: "It was all open and above board, and nothing has ever been hidden on this subject. Frankly, one of the reasons family members are employed is because few other people would work so hard for so little money."

He said his daughter received 2,500 from the Labour group and 6,000 from his staff allowance per year.

Another MSP to employ two family members, but not concurrently, is Aberdeen North's Brian Adam (SNP). He employs his son Alan; his other son, David, used to work for him.

Employing relatives is not against the rules at Westminster, but since August MPs have had to register the names of all family members paid from the public purse.

The rule was introduced after Derek Conway, a former Tory MP, was accused of misusing public funds earlier this year. He was suspended from the Commons and stripped of the Conservative whip after it emerged he had hired his son as a parliamentary researcher while he was a full-time student in Newcastle.

About one in six MPs hires family members as researchers or secretaries. Indeed, some MPs insist, like Mr McMahon, that non-family members would never agree to work such long, awkward hours for relatively small salaries.

Given the demands on MPs, who are away from home for most of the week, keeping wives or husbands on the payroll has also helped to keep some marriages together, it is claimed.

A new version of the Westminster list, Family Members Employed and Remunerated through the Staffing Allowance, was published this week.

FACT BOX

MSPs who employ family members are:

SNP: Brian Adam (son Alan), Nicola Sturgeon (mother Joan), Willie Coffey (sister Helen), Angela Constance (mother-in-law Mary Knox), Kenneth Gibson (wife Patricia), Jim Mather (wife Maureen), Tricia Marwick (son Steven), Stewart Maxwell (wife Mary), Alex Neil (wife Isabella), Andrew Welsh (nephew Gary Ferguson), and Sandra White (son Christopher).

Labour: Rhona Brankin (daughter Ruth), Michael McMahon (wife Margaret and daughter Siobhan), Helen Eadie (husband Robert), Charles Gordon (son Gavin's website and IT firm GMG Solutions), Hugh Henry (sister-in-law Lindsay McAlpine), Cathy Jamieson (son Michael Sharpe), Andy Kerr (wife Susan), James Kelly (wife Alexa), Tom McCabe (sister Kathleen Ferguson), Elaine Murray (husband Jeff Leaver) and Elaine Smith (aunt Agnes Rodgers).

Conservative: Ted Brocklebank (sister Pat Anthony) and Jamie McGrigor (wife Emma).

Liberal Democrat: Jim Tolson (wife Alison).