MSP claims Salmond 'misled' parliament over funds

Published on Friday 9 January 2009 20:57

ALEX Salmond, the First Minister, was last night facing demands to apologise to the Scottish Parliament amid allegations that he misled MSPs on Thursday.

The call has come from Tavish Scott, the Liberal Democrat leader, over a reply he received on funding for the Scottish Inter Faith Council (SIFC) during First Minister's questions (FMQs).

But a spokesman for Mr Salmond has said there will be no apology, adding that Mr Scott was trying "to regain ground after making a fool of himself in the exchanges".

Mr Scott asked why funding was not going to the SIFC and why redundancy notices had been issued. But Mr Salmond said the funding issue was resolved.

Afterwards, the SNP said the funding issue had been sorted out over Christmas following an intervention from Fergus Ewing, the community safety minister.

But, on Thursday evening Mr Scott received an e-mail from the convener of SIFC, Major Alan Dixon, saying that the issue was not resolved and that just before FMQs, staff had been told a second application would have to be made.

Pramila Kaur, SIFC's chief executive, has confirmed redundancy notices were rescinded yesterday, but said more money is needed than the 120,000 – a repeat of this year's grant – offered to meet additional costs. A meeting is due to be held on Tuesday to finalise funding.

Mr Scott said: "The First Minister told the Scottish Parliament that the funding crisis at SIFC had been 'resolved'. We now know this not to be the case.

"Our most senior Scottish minister cannot be allowed to mislead the public and the parliament in this way."

A Scottish Government spokesman said: "We are pleased to confirm that the Scottish Government funding will continue for the following two financial years."