Alex Salmond defends accepting £30k resettlement grant

Alex Salmond has defended accepting a resettlement grant of almost £30,000 after standing down as an MSP.
By The Newsroom
Published 9th Aug 2016, 17:03 BST
Updated 25th Aug 2016, 20:02 BST

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Alex Salmond was paid £15,000 during his first months as a weekly LBC host. Picture: ContributedAlex Salmond was paid £15,000 during his first months as a weekly LBC host. Picture: Contributed
Alex Salmond was paid £15,000 during his first months as a weekly LBC host. Picture: Contributed

The former first minister has been criticised for taking the cash despite continuing as an MP and earning tens of thousands of pounds from media work, including £15,000 from the first six months of his LBC radio phone-in programme.

A spokesman for Mr Salmond said he had donated more money to charity than any other Scottish politician.

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The SNP’s foreign affairs spokesman at Westminster stood down from his Aberdeenshire East seat before May’s Holyrood election.

Former MSPs are paid a resettlement grant equivalent to a percentage of their annual salary at the end of their service, depending on the number of years served.

The grant is designed to “assist with the cost of adjusting to non-parliamentary life” and recipients can choose to return the money.

Scottish Conservative MSP Murdo Fraser described Mr Salmond’s acceptance of the payment as “utterly shameless”.

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He said: “Resettlement grants were never intended for those who hold elected office elsewhere which is already well-rewarded.

“Nicola Sturgeon should really pull her former boss back into line and tell him to stop lining his pockets with taxpayers’ money.”

Mr Salmond’s spokesman said the Gordon MP’s grant had been reduced by £10,000 to the minimum of £29,544 in order to reflect the four years he spent serving in both Holyrood and Westminster.

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He said: “Mr Salmond has long devoted any additional financial benefit from the years he spent serving in two parliaments to charitable causes.

“Therefore he has built up a record of charitable giving unrivalled by any other current Scottish politician.

“Now, he has pledged that, by the end of the current financial year, his personal charitable donations will reach a total of £150,000 over the ten years since his election as First Minister of Scotland.

“This includes contributions of over £125,000 already made to the trust he established to assist young people and community organisations in the north-east of Scotland.

“Mr Salmond has now guaranteed the trust a minimum of £10,000 additional support as part of further personal charitable donations totalling £15,000 this financial year.

“In addition to these personal contributions, Mr Salmond also raised more than a quarter of a million pounds through charity auctions of Christmas cards and other memorabilia whilst serving as First Minister for a variety of Scottish and international aid charities including CLIC Sargent, Combat Stress, SCIAF, Quarriers, Breakthrough Breast Cancer and many others.”

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Related topics:Alex SalmondMSPMSPsPolice ScotlandAberdeenshire East