Scotland’s Health Secretary Neil Gray, who used taxpayer-funded limos to travel to football games, was also chauffeured to the pub.
The Mail can now reveal that ahead of Aberdeen FC’s pivotal match against Livingston last year the Dons fan was driven to the city’s Brig O’Don watering hole and then to Pittodrie.
The journeys, logged in the official ministerial register as trips to and from a ‘personal address, Aberdeen’ were only amended after our investigation showed no evidence of such an address could be found.
The Scottish Government insisted there had been an ‘administration error’, while officials admitted Mr Gray has no home address in Aberdeen.
But critics have now accused the health minister of misleading parliament for a SECOND time over the issue.
Scottish Conservative deputy leader Rachael Hamilton said: ‘Neil Gray has serious questions to answer because it appears that he misled parliament.’
Mr Gray has already had to apologise to parliament over his use of government cars.
Neil Gray used a taxpayer-funded limo to travel to a pub in a journey officially logged as to a personal address
Mr Gray was chauffeured to the Brig O’Don pub in Aberdeen
The row over Mr Gray’s use of taxpayer-funded limos broke out after it emerged he had been chauffuered to and from nine football matches involving his teams Aberdeen FC or Scotland between 2022 and 2024.
In November, Mr Gray apologised to parliament for giving ‘the impression of acting more as a fan and less as a minister’ but reassured MSPs that the matches were not junkets and that officials had made a record of business meetings at the matches.
In January, he was forced to address the issue AGAIN – and admit he had misled parliament – after it was revealed there was no such written record of discussions he was involved in when he attended the 2023 Scottish League Cup Final between Aberdeen, and Rangers.
Now, it has emerged his use of a government car to attend a pub trip was incorrectly logged as a trip home.
On May 15, 2024, Mr Gray was invited by Aberdeen FC Community Trust to take part in a number of Mental Health Awareness Week events and after his meetings, the official Government record showed he was taken to a ‘personal address’ in Aberdeen.
Yet when this claim was investigated, there was no evidence of Mr Gray having a second home in the region.
When questioned over the irregularity, SNP spin doctors admitted to The Mail that the Health Secretary was not in fact returning to a home address in Aberdeen but was instead attending a ‘personal engagement’ at a ‘restaurant’.
A source confirmed Mr Gray went to the Brig O’Don, which describes itself as a ‘pub restaurant’, and which is located fewer than two miles from the Pittodrie football stadium. The insider confirmed Mr Gray picked up his own bill at the pub.
Mr Gray pictured at Aberdeen’s Pittodrie Stadium
Following his pitstop, he was then taken by limo to the match. The official record relating to ministerial meetings at the Aberdeen v Livingston game amounted to a single line.
Approached for comment this week – more than a year after the match took place and months after Mr Gray’s second clarification of his use of the Government Car Service (GCS) in parliament – the record was changed.
A Scottish government spokesman said: ‘This is an administration error. Mr Gray travelled from government business to a restaurant for a personal engagement before returning to government business.’
Scottish Tory Rachael Hamilton said the ‘inaccuracy was hard to fathom’.
She added: ‘He needs to explain why he and his team originally claimed that his ministerial limo took him to a home address rather than to a restaurant for socialising.
‘Given the scandal the misuse of his government car caused, the health secretary ought to have double checked every journey to make sure that his account was factually correct, so this inaccuracy is hard to fathom.’
Mr Gray has also come under fire for taking a ministerial car to the opening night of the Edinburgh International Film Festival in August, with his wife Karlie.
First Minister John Swinney said it related to his health brief because the film touched upon addiction.
A Scottish Government spokesman said the pub trip was ‘in line with the rules around Government Car Service GCS use.’
