A CITY’S Lord Provost has been urged to resign after it emerged she has claimed £8000 in expenses for clothes, shoes and beauty products.
Scottish Labour called on Glasgow’s Eva Bolander to repay the money and step down, branding the spending “grotesque”.
Bolander spent £1150 on 23 pairs of shoes and £435 on seven blazers between May 2017 and August 2019, the Daily Record reported.
She also claimed up to £992 for 14 dresses, £665 for five coats, £374.50 for six jackets and £152 for underwear.
The SNP councillor also claimed back money spent on her appearance, including £751 for 10 haircuts, £479 for 20 nail treatments and £66 on make-up.
Glasgow Labour MSP James Kelly (below) said: “While services for homeless people across Glasgow are being cut, the SNP Lord Provost has been touring the city in a grotesque spending spree at the taxpayers’ expense.
“In just one trip to John Lewis she spent more on herself than what a worker being paid the national minimum wage earns in a whole week. Eva Bolander should pay back the money and resign.”
Bolander also claimed £358 for a pair of spectacles and £240 on two hats. Labour MSP Monica Lennon tweeted that the spending would have funded 72 school clothing grants, which are £110 for a child from a low-income family.
Martin McElroy, a Labour councillor in Glasgow, said: “These expenses claims are an absolute disgrace. We need an urgent review of the Lord Provost’s spending and maximum transparency.
“At a time when services are being cut, Glaswegians will not understand why their Lord Provost believes it is appropriate to charge the taxpayer for kitting herself out with a new wardrobe.
“Claiming for more than 20 pairs of shoes is frankly incredible. Does she think she is Imelda Marcos?”
READ MORE: Eva Bolander — Once a visiting piper from Sweden, now Glasgow's Lord Provost
A Glasgow City Council spokesman said: “The national committee that oversees councillors’ pay recognises that the requirement to represent their city at hundreds of events means Lord Provosts often incur personal expenses.
“For that reason, the Scottish Government allocates a civic allowance to each council. For Glasgow City Council, this is subject to a yearly maximum of £5000.”
Scottish Tory Glasgow MSP Annie Wells said: “For any politician to think they can claim something like this on expenses is a joke.
“It’s not even one or two misdemeanours – these revelations show a pattern of behaviour which will be completely unacceptable to council tax payers in Glasgow.
“She must now do the right thing and stand down – there’s simply no way she can continue in this senior role after these reports. She also owes the people of Glasgow an almighty apology.”
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