According to insider records, the Scottish Conservative Party has allocated over £150,000 for media guidance, funds that were obtained from the public purse. The total amount of £154,700 was spent on such training over a two-year period, from March 2022 to March 2024, with the details being published in the Holyrood expenses register.
A majority of this budget, specifically £118,200, was disbursed to Gen Comms Limited. This company, headed by former director of media for the Scottish Tory (from 2000 to 2012), Ramsay Jones, provided in-depth training to 31 members of the Scottish Conservative party. The training was delivered both at individual and group levels, focusing on broadcast essentials.
Another beneficiary of these training expenses was Shorthand PR, where Adam Morris, a previous head of media for the party, sits at the helm. They received a sum of £26,000 to undertake training focused on written and social media platforms over the course of 2023 and 2024.
The source of these funds was the support budgets allocated to Scottish Tory MSPs. These budgets are provided to every MSP with the intent to aid them in conducting their official responsibilities more effectively.
These expenditure levels, particularly in relation to media training by the Scottish Conservatives, surpasses that of any other political parties. Assuredly, their significant media tutoring expenditure has played a large role in setting them apart.
For comparison, Scottish Labour spent £30,000 in March 2024 on Ebor Political Consultants Limited – a consultancy firm operated by former spin doctor Alan Roden, by leveraging the same funding mechanism. Additionally, MSPs across different party lines have also pursued diverse training programs.
Scottish Labour’s MSP, Neil Bibby, on the other hand, spent a sum of £459 on video editing training for his staff team in the previous year. Similarly, SNP minister Angela Constance’s personnel also pursued training in social media, incurring an expense of £199 in 2023.
Scottish Greens party’s co-leader, Lorna Slater, was not to be left behind, allotting £3000 for ‘communication skills’ training during 2023. The Scottish Tories’ MSP, Edward Mountain, has also been documented reimbursing Shorthand PR a collective £10,500 across three separate payments from January to March 2024 for consulting services pertaining to communications.
This significant allocation of public funds for media training by the Scottish Conservatives has been flagged particularly as the party’s leader Russell Findlay had been endorsing the creation of Scotland’s own Department for Government Efficiency. This proposal has gained considerable attention and support from various quarters.
Earlier in February, Findlay had projected the vision of establishing his indigenous interpretation of a cost-cutting department resonating with Elon Musk’s influential US government department. The nominated Scottish version of the Department for Government Efficiency is proposed to critically trim wasteful expenditures, identify potential savings, devising strategies for maximizing taxpayer value.
However, the Scottish Greens have raised eyebrows over such discrepancies, voicing concerns about the ethical implications of these financial decisions. They pointed out the £155,000 of public money spent in such a short time raises considerable questions.
Scottish Green MSP Maggie Chapman questioned the return on this hefty investment, stating, ‘I don’t think anyone could convincingly argue that they got value for money. It is reasonable that elected representatives seek support and training to fulfill their roles more effectively, but there has to be judicious prudence in the associated costs.’
Chapman continued her critique of the allocation by pointing out potential conflict of interest, saying, ‘huge amounts of money transferred to former party colleagues certainly warrants an examination of ethics.’ She finished her statement by saying, ‘The Tories squandering money, however, is hardly a shock.’
When queried about this expenditure, a spokesperson from the Scottish Conservatives declared that the assumed contract was for ‘professional media training of all Scottish Conservative MSPs over the fiscal year.’ Clarifying further, they mentioned that these expenditures were backed by the total support budget awarded to each MSP.
They concluded by emphasizing that the intention of these funds was to advance their MSPs’ communications skills, and was fully funded through the contributions drawn from each of their designated support budgets.