A CONSERVATIVE donor who has been given a ministerial position in the Scotland Office will be introduced to the House of Lords tomorrow – and agreed on his official title ahead of the move.
Malcolm Offord, who has given more than £147,500 to the party and failed in his bid to be elected to the Scottish Parliament earlier this year, is being made a peer by Boris Johnson’s government.
After he is formally introduced in the House he is able to join the Government in Alister Jack’s department, where the previous role held by MP David Duguid is vacant.
Offord’s appointment has been heavily criticised by the SNP, who have accused the Conservatives of “rampant cronyism”.
The Herald reported that Offord has now agreed on an official title – Lord Offord of Garvel, which is an area of Greenock in Renfrewshire.
Offord was born in the west-coast town, close to the docks which include Garvel Island.
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The donor spent two decades working in finance in London, setting up a firm called Badenoch and Co, describe as a “boutique investment office specialising in private equity and property with a focus on Scotland”.
The soon-to-be minister ran a pro-Union campaign back before the 2014 independence referendum, titled Vote No Borders.
He also spoke in favour of Brexit in 2016 and gave £2500 to Michael Gove.
The SNP's longest-serving MP, Pete Wishart, said: “Whether it’s handing out lucrative Covid contracts to friends and contacts, giving a Tory donor a peerage and appointing him to the Scotland Office, or stuffing the House of Lords with cronies, it’s obvious that this Tory government is driven entirely by cronyism, self-interest, and sleaze.
"The people of Scotland have had enough of the sleaze at the heart of the UK government. The only way we can protect Scotland from the sleaze and cronyism of the Tories - and finally rid ourselves of an undemocratic House of Lords - is by becoming an independent country.”
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