Final whistle yet to blow on Neil Gray football chauffeur row after sort-of apology

After days of criticism from opponents, Neil Gray will hope his sort-of apology in Holyrood will be enough to call full time on this particular row. But in politics, perception is everything.

And as Mr Gray recognised, this did not look great.

Neil Gray | PA

The SNP health secretary apologised for giving “the impression of acting more as a fan and less as a minister” after he was chauffeured to football games in a ministerial car.

The Dons fan attended six matches in total in his capacity as a government minister, and four of them were Aberdeen games. He conceded he should have “attended a wider range” of matches.

Mr Gray also revealed he was accompanied by a family member or guest at five of the six games.

“I am a football fan,” he said in a statement to MSPs. “I follow Aberdeen. But I should not have allowed the impression to be given that this played any role in my engagements. And I am sorry for my error.”

However, the health secretary said it was legitimate for ministers to attend sporting events and he will continue to do so.

Speaking to journalists in Holyrood on Thursday, First Minister John Swinney said the matter was now closed. This was an unfortunate echo of words used by his predecessor Humza Yousaf during the Michael Matheson saga.

The latter, of course, later resigned when the row over his £11,000 iPad data roaming bill remained stubbornly open. He went on to be given a record ban from Holyrood.

No one is saying Mr Gray is in line for the same fate. The two rows are not comparable, and no rules appear to have been broken.

The health secretary will also hope his decision to stand up in Holyrood and make a prompt statement to MSPs takes some of the heat off. One of the lessons from the Matheson debacle is to get everything out in the open as quickly as possible.

But Mr Gray’s political opponents won’t let this rest quite so easily. The final whistle has yet to sound.