Something fishy in Scotland - Updated 10.07.07 @ 18:10

Thank you Mr Eugenides for alerting the world to this strange story about Alex Salmond. In March the SNP stated that "He will do exactly the same as Donald Dewar did, Jim Wallace did and Donald Gorrie did, which is to stand down at the next Westminster election... And he will only take one salary." you can read the whole story here. So that's clear Alex Salmond will have stopped taking his Westminster salary since the Scottish elections.

However, there is this question & answer in Hansard "Jo Swinson: To ask the Leader of the House which hon. Members elected at the 2005 election are not drawing their salaries as hon. Members.
Ms Harman: All current Members elected at the 2005 election are at present drawing their salary except for the five Sinn Fein MPs, none of whom have taken the Oath."

Hmm, so is Alex Salmond still drawing his Westminster salary contrary to his party's promise before the elections or did Harriet Harman lie to Parliament or is there some other reason?

If I find out the truth I will post an update.



UPDATE:
It appears that Alex Salmond is still intending to take just the one salary, that of a Westminster MP rather than a MSP. Presumably this is because of the better pension arrangements that would accrue. There seems to be some debate as to whether Alex Salmond promised to take just one salary and did he specify which one he would take. It also seems most peculiar that the Scottish First Minister who wants independence for Scotland will draw a salary from Westminster which he wants freedom from and not from the Scottish Parliament that he heads. Furthermore, "He said arrangements were being put in place for him to receive only one of the parliamentary salaries." Arrangements would, I have thought, involve his office calling or writing to the relevant accounting department to say "please stop paying me my salary", not too tricky really. How many "unwanted" payments has he received since the election? I assume the May and June salary payments. I would have hoped that he would have noticed the large "unwanted" deposits in his bank account within that time or is he as vague on his family's finances as Tessa Jowell. I hope that we find out the answers to the above and that the excess monies are returned forthwith.

UPDATE:
It appears that Alex Salmond has done the decent thing. He will be putting his MSP salary into a charitable trust, "The trust is expected to generate about £18,000 a year until the next General Election, and will fund youth and community projects in the north-east" of Scotland. However I note from the same report that "In addition to both salaries, Mr Salmond also collects £77,000 as first minister." I would have thought that as a proud Scot and a supporter/proposer of Scottish Independence, Mr Salmond would rather take a salary for his work in Scotland rather than from the Westminster Parliament. Maybe like Scotland as a whole Mr Salmond is just quite happy to take money from Westminster.