Humza Yousaf must apologise for backing iPad row minister - Tories

First Minister Humza Yousaf had repeatedly backed his former health secretary

Humza Yousaf must apologise for refusing to sack former health secretary Michael Matheson, the Scottish Conservatives have said.

Mr Matheson resigned on Thursday ahead of a report into an £11,000 bill racked up on his parliamentary iPad.

Scottish Tory chairman Craig Hoy told BBC News that Mr Matheson had been "distracted and utterly disgraced" in a period of rising A&E waiting times.

He said First Minister Humza Yousaf should have sacked him before now.

Arriving at NFU Scotland's spring conference in Glasgow on Friday, Mr Yousaf disagreed that his judgement was in question following his decision to support Mr Matheson.

• Neil Gray replaces Matheson as health secretary

• Scottish health secretary quits over £11k iPad bill

He had backed Mr Matheson when the bill was made public in November, with the first minister describing it as a "legitimate" expense.

Mr Yousaf said: "He's served this country and served this parliament for decades. He asked for due process - an investigation - to take place. That investigation is drawing to a conclusion, he wrote to me to say he was going to stand down and I accepted his resignation."

In his resignation letter, Mr Matheson said he was standing down because he did not want the row over the iPad to become a distraction from his job.

It came ahead of the publication of an investigation by the Scottish Parliament Corporate Body - which has been examining whether Mr Matheson made an improper expenses claim.

Michael Matheson said he did not want the parliamentary investigation to become a "distraction"

Mr Matheson is understood to have been given a copy of the report on Thursday afternoon, several hours after he stood down.

Mr Hoy told BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland: "We need to see that report in order to find out the timeline of events - and what Michael Matheson knew and when.

"Importantly, as we look forward, there are now very big questions for the first minister to answer.

"This is a test for his judgement and his authority."

The iPad charges, initially paid out of the public purse, were incurred during a family trip to Morocco in late 2022.

When details of the bill were first made public, Mr Matheson said the device had only been used for parliamentary work.

But he subsequently admitted that his sons had used the iPad as a data hotspot so they could watch football.

He has since paid back the bill in full and apologised.

Neil Gray was appointed as the new health secretary on Thursday

Ministers are entitled to three months of their final ministerial salary as a severance payment 90 days after leaving their post.

Mr Matheson's final ministerial salary was £50,849, meaning he could be handed a £12,712 payment - about £1,700 more than he paid back for the iPad bill.

Neil Gray was appointed as the new health secretary on Thursday after Mr Yousaf reshuffled his cabinet team following Mr Matheson's resignation.

He inherits the single largest area of Scottish government spending, accounting for 35% of the 2024-25 discretionary budget.

Mr Gray will also tackle existing issues in Scotland's NHS like long ambulance waiting times, long waits for care in A&E, and lengthy waiting lists.

Cabinet reshuffle

A new report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) on the impact of the pandemic on Scotland's hospital productivity and performance says there has been "a large reduction in hospital productivity in Scotland" and predicted it would take "several more years" for the NHS to return to pre-pandemic activity levels.

The new health secretary is not entirely unfamiliar with the health portfolio having previously worked under former cabinet secretary for health and wellbeing, Alex Neil.

Speaking on Thursday to BBC Scotland's Drivetime with Fiona Stalker, Mr Neil said: "Neil was my parliamentary assistant for seven years and that covered the period when I was health secretary so he's actually seen it kind of at arm's length what the job of health secretary entails and he fully understands I think the pressures that being the health secretary entails."

Humza Yousaf unveiled his new cabinet team on Thursday

The former MSP said Mr Matheson's resignation was "a great tragedy" and "a sad way for Michael to end his ministerial career".

"I think it was a misjudgement, both by Michael not to do that right at the beginning and a missed judgement by the first minister to allow the situation to go on and on and on. It's a self-inflicted wound. It could have been easily avoided." he said.

"Michael is one of the most astute political operators I know and at the time I was quite surprised that he didn't 'play the right game' as it were and put his hands up right away.

"I think the problem is that over the last year-and-a-half, the SNP has been battered. Everything that's become a problem for us - nearly everything anyway - has been totally self-inflicted, perfectly avoidable situations in the party and in the government and I think really the message to the first minister is that he really needs to get a grip now and be decisive when these situations arise."

The first minister expressed his "sadness" in his acceptance letter of Mr Matheson's resignation.

Speaking in Glasgow on Friday he said: "I've managed to do a really strong reshuffle, putting together a really good team, a strong team that will be focused on delivering the priorities for the people of Scotland."