Former minister Michael Matheson suspended from Holyrood over iPad roaming bill dispute

Former health secretary Michael Matheson has been suspended from the Scottish Parliament for 27 days and will lose his salary for 54 days after racking up a data roaming bill worth almost £11,000.

Mr Matheson was found to have breached the MSP code of conduct by attempting to use expenses and office costs to cover the bill for a parliamentary iPad.

Mr Matheson later announced that he would cover the costs himself, but revealed that the bill was due to his children using the device as a Wi-Fi hotspot to watch football while on holiday in Morocco.

Scotland’s First Minister John Swinney has strongly criticized the process used to suspend Mr Matheson, describing it as “biased” based on public comments made by committee members.