THE Scottish Tories shelled out more than £150,000 of taxpayer money on media training — all of which went to firms run by two of the party’s former spin doctors.
The party spent a total of £154,700 on media training between March 2022 and March 2024, according to the Holyrood expenses register.
Gen Comms Limited – which is led by its former director of media between 2000 and 2012, Ramsay Jones – benefitted to the tune of £118,200 in that timeframe from training the 31 Scottish Tory MSPs, including both “individual” and “group” broadcast training.
Shorthand PR, meanwhile, which is led by the party’s former head of media Adam Morris, also received £26,000 for “written media” and “social media” training in 2023 and 2024.
The funding was raised through contributions from Scottish Tory MSPs' support budgets, which are given to every MSP to help them carry out their official duties.
But the Scottish Tory total is far higher than anything claimed by other parties – bolstered by their high media training spend.
Using the same mechanism, Scottish Labour notably paid £30,000 in March 2024 to Ebor Political Consultants Limited – a consultancy run by former spin doctor Alan Roden.
MSPs from other parties have also undergone training. For example, Scottish Labour MSP Neil Bibby expenses £459 for video editing training for staff last year.
Now SNP minister Angela Constance’s staff underwent social media training in 2023 for £199.
Scottish Greens co-leader Lorna Slater spent £3000 on “communication skills” training in 2023.
Scottish Tory MSP Edward Mountain also paid Shorthand PR a total of £10,500 in three separate payments spanning January to March 2024 for “consultancy fees for communications”.
The more than £150,000 of taxpayer money spent by the Scottish Tories for media training comes as its leader Russell Findlay has pushed – to much fanfare – for Scotland to have its very own Department for Government Efficiency (Doge).
In February this year, Findlay pledged to set up his own version of Elon Musk's powerful cost-cutting US government department.
The Scottish Conservative leader said the Scottish version of Doge would be tasked with “cutting waste, identifying savings and delivering better value for taxpayers”.
An SNP source told the Sunday National that this story will be “raising eyebrows among voters”.
They added: “Anyone watching Tory MSPs media performances will be demanding a refund.”
Meanwhile, Scottish LibDem MP Alistair Carmichael said: "The best spin doctors and media training in the world could not make any difference when it comes to the car crash interviews we've seen from Conservative parliamentarians defending Boris Johnson and Liz Truss in recent years."
The Scottish Greens have said it "raises ethics questions".
“£155,000 is a lot of public funds to spend on media training over just two years, and I don’t think anyone would argue they got value for money," MSP Maggie Chapman said.
"It’s right that elected representatives can get support and training to do their jobs, but it has to be within reason. And handing such large sums of money to former party colleagues raises further ethics questions."
She added: “Nobody will be surprised by the Tories wasting money. We still remember the Tory MPs shamelessly caught claiming for duck houses and moats on expenses. Not to mention the £700 million they spent on the illegal Rwanda scheme, or the £22 billion they cost bill payers by cutting energy efficiency schemes.
“For all their talk, when you actually look at the books, there’s nobody better at wasting money than a Tory.”
In response, a Scottish Conservative spokesperson said: “This contract covered the delivery of specialist media training to all Scottish Conservative MSPs throughout the financial year.
“It was financed through pooled contributions drawn from the individual support budgets allocated to each MSP.”
Morris from Shorthand PR said: “We provide media support and training across business and the political spectrum, and were delighted to assist the Scottish Conservatives.”
Gen Comms Limited didn't respond to a request for comment.
