Michael Matheson: iPad scandal got 'blown out of all proportion' as wife became 'unwell with stress'

Addressing the row in detail for the first time, the former health secretary said the press coverage was “completely unforgiving”. He said it had a significant impact on his family, particularly his children, while his wife became unwell with stress.

Mr Matheson was handed a record ban last year for breaching the Scottish Parliament’s expenses policy. He was suspended from Holyrood for 27 days and lost his MSP salary for twice that period.

The former minister quit his Cabinet role in February last year following months of pressure over the huge data roaming bill racked up on his parliamentary iPad during a family holiday to Morocco.

Mr Matheson initially used his MSP expenses and office costs to cover the bill, before resolving to pay it himself following pressure from the opposition.

In an emotional statement in Holyrood in 2023, the-then health secretary said the costs had been incurred by his teenage sons, who had used the iPad as a wifi hotspot to watch football during the holiday in Morocco.

He had previously told journalists there had been no personal use of the device, even after discovering the truth.

Speaking to the Institute for Government, Mr Matheson was asked if there were any lessons for other ministers from the events that led up to his resignation.

He said: “If I look back, the lesson I would say is recognising how unforgiving the political space is that you’re operating in. In the end, it was my desire to try and avoid the press knowing about what my son had done.

“It was completely unforgiving, despite the fact that when you offer it up, then they say you’re using it as a cover. Actually, no, I'm not, but I'm telling you that's what's happened.”

However, he said he was struck by the number of people who reached out and offered support.

Mr Matheson added: “ I think my advice would be to be aware that it is a very unforgiving environment which you operate in at times. There is no space for error sometimes.

“When you’re a backbencher, if you do make an error, it's not the same. But when you're a minister and you're a senior minister, you're going to get chased down and you quite literally get chased down.

“What you shouldn't underestimate is the impact that these things can have on your family as well. Because they do have quite a significant impact on your family, particularly my children who were teenagers.

“For example, it's in the public record that our house got broken into. Doing all of this: taking the children out of school; my wife becoming unwell with stress; having to go out your house, drive away and then come back to pick up your kids to get photographers to go away; folk hanging about your house; climbing over the back wall to get out because the kids had football shirts on and the press would take photographs of them; pictures of your children ending up on social media. All of that was constant.

“I think the thing that you need to realise is that when you become a minister, if you do make a mistake, you can end up in the eye of a political storm. The thing that acted as a big catalyst for me was that, as soon as the general election was called, everything was put on steroids.

“It became a massive issue because folk saw a political advantage they could get from it. It just got completely blown out of all proportion in my view.”