Douglas Ross is facing more flack after claiming taxpayer-funded expenses on a day he failed to declare earnings for his lucrative sideline as a football referee.
The Scottish Tory leader - exposed for not declaring 16 games where he was paid £7,000 - has been forced to apologise again after forgetting to register a 17th game where he was paid £445.
But the politician, who is a MP, MSP and linesman, did remember to claim for almost £93 the same day on his MP’s expenses.
On November 1 2020 when the MP for Moray was in Glasgow to officiate at the delayed Scottish Cup semi-final match between Aberdeen and Celtic he claimed £48.99 for parking and £43 for a return rail ticket.
He earned around £445 from the Scottish Football Association (SFA) for the cup tie which Celtic won 2-0.
Yet despite the high-profile Hampden game, it was not declared on his newly updated MP Registers of Financial Interests.
Last week we revealed how Ross had broken rules by failing to disclose his earnings from 26 games within 28 days.
Scottish Labour’s Business Manager Neil Bibby said: “It seems Douglas Ross can remember to do his paperwork when it suits him.
“If he showed as much diligence declaring income as he does claiming it, he might not be in this mess.
“This contempt for the public is all too typical for a Tory party embroiled in sleaze.”
A SNP spokesman said: “Douglas Ross clearly has some detailed explaining to do – and his abject failure to clear this up a week on from the first revelations about his undeclared earnings just adds to the stench of Tory sleaze.”
Green MSP Gillian Mackay said: “These revelations raise a lot of questions for Douglas Ross and his party, and they need to be investigated in full.
“The current sleaze and scandal that the Tories are mired in is because far too many of their MPs are happy to make excessive sums for themselves while punishing the people they are supposed to represent with bedroom tax, universal credit cuts and a cost of living crisis.”
Underfire Ross previously said forgetting to disclose football match pay on his MP Registers of Financial Interests was an “error” and referred himself to Westminster’s parliamentary watchdog.
Despite being updated last week to account for the 16 missing referee gigs, his MP Registers of Financial Interests is still missing the key Cup match.
A spokesman for Ross said this would be rectified next week.
He added: “Douglas has made the register of interests aware of this payment and has apologised for this error.
“A member of Douglas’s office is responsible for handling his expenses and they properly registered all claims as required by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority.
“His football payments were handled by Douglas personally, not his office, since they are an outside interest, and he has held his hands up for making mistakes in declaring them.”
Other expenses claims registered with the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) show how Ross, 37, claimed just £1 to cover the cost of a rail booking three days before he officiated at a Rangers match at Ibrox against Ross County.
That game is also missing from his updated MP Registers of Financial Interests as it’s understood he was not paid.
Ross has claimed nearly £60,000 in 2020/21 for staffing and office costs as well as travel costs.
Last week, Boris Johnson’s government proposed tightening rules on MPs’ second jobs.
But new rules would still not stop Ross, who will quit being a MP at the next election to concentrate on leading the Tories at Holyrood, working as an assistant referee in his spare time.
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