Nicola Sturgeon treated ‘like royalty’ with almost £10,000-worth of airport VIP upgrades paid for by Scottish taxpayers when she was First Minister
- She used ‘meet and greet services’ repeatedly between 2022 and 2022
Scottish taxpayers forked out almost £10,000 on VIP treatment for Nicola Sturgeon when she flew on official business when she was First Minister, new documents have revealed.
The former leader used ‘meet and greet services’ from a company that boasted that it treated its customers ‘like royalty’ repeatedly between 2022 and 2022.
The data obtained by Scottish Labour detailing spending on the SNP government’s credit cards between 2019 and last year.
It shows that Ms Sturgeon’s team paid Ace Handling for services during visits including to England, Ireland, Germany and the Netherlands, as well as when leaving and returning through Edinburgh Airport.
Ace’s website says it relieves the ‘stress’ of going through airport procedures, ‘whether you’re a VIP or just want to feel like one’.
The former leader used ‘meet and greet services’ from a company that boasted that it treated its customers ‘like royalty’ repeatedly between 2022 and 2022.
It shows that Ms Sturgeon’s team paid Ace Handling for services during visits including to England, Ireland, Germany and the Netherlands, as well as when leaving and returning through Edinburgh Airport.
Ace’s website says it relieves the ‘stress’ of going through airport procedures, ‘whether you’re a VIP or just want to feel like one’.
For departures it meets clients from their car and then whisks them through check-in and security ‘to the VIP lounge, and then to the awaiting flight’. When arriving, clients are met from their flight and escorted through immigration, luggage reclaim ‘and taken to your waiting car’.
The SNP have been among some of the loudest critics of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s use of VIP air travel. In January MP Tommy Sheppard tweeted that his use of a jet made ‘a mockery of his climate pledges’.
Scottish Labour finance spokesman Michael Marra told the Daily Record: ‘These are the spending habits of an arrogant and entitled government with no regard for taxpayers.
‘The SNP government is frittering away public money on frivolous purchases and VIP treatment while services are stretched to breaking point.’
The most expensive use of the meet-and-green services was £1,605 spent at Dublin Airport on October 13, 2021.
Ms Sturgeon was in Ireland in transit to Reykjavik to speak about climate change as a keynote speaker to the Arctic Circle Assembly.
It came two weeks before Glasgow hosted the Cop26 climate conference and she told delegates Scotland planned to ‘lead by example’.
The government credit card was also used to spend £1,271.21 at Amsterdam Schiphol in February 2020, as she was en route to Brussels, having spent £946.67 there the previous September on a trip to Germany.
The Scottish government said: ‘The Scottish government is committed to delivering the best value for money for taxpayers and proactively publishes information about spending to improve openness and transparency.
‘Spending through electronic purchasing cards is used to support government officials during their usual course of work such as on training, catering, room hire and one-off supplies.
‘The cards are not for personal expenditure and there are robust authorisation and regular auditing arrangements are in place to monitor their use.
‘For security reasons we cannot comment on the first minister’s travel arrangements.’
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