Summary
Michael Matheson resigns as Scottish Health Secretary ahead of a report on his iPad bill. Late last year, it was revealed that the then-Health Secretary Matheson had racked up a £11k roaming bill on his parliamentary iPad, subsequently admitting that his sons had used the iPad as a data hotspot so they could watch football. The team react to the news and the Scottish government cabinet reshuffle, discussing why the resignation has come now, and if it will have the stated intended effect of avoiding the bill becoming a distraction - as this week saw difficulties for both the Conservatives in relation to Rishi Sunak's poorly received trans jibe to Labour's Starmer in PMQs, and Labour facing backlash over plans to scrap it's £28bn a year green pledge.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds |
| 0:02.4 | You're listening to BBC Scotland |
| 0:10.2 | Hi, you're listening to Podlitical, BBC Scotland's podcast |
| 0:16.0 | That brings you an inside look at the big stories coming out of Holyroods and Westminster. |
| 0:20.6 | It's two minutes past two on Thursday the 8th of February. |
| 0:23.9 | I'm Lucy White. |
| 0:24.8 | I'm in a studio in Glasgow. |
| 0:26.9 | I'm David Wallace Lockhart, political correspondent, |
| 0:29.9 | currently standing outside a very cold Scottish government HQ |
| 0:32.7 | waiting for a reshuffle. |
| 0:34.8 | And it's Georgia Roberts, |
| 0:36.1 | currently sitting in a warm studio in Westminster. |
| 0:40.7 | Not to rub it in or anything, David. |
| 0:42.6 | We're both in nice, warm studios. |
| 0:45.6 | Yes, so this is not where you were originally planning to be this afternoon at 2 o'clock, |
| 0:51.1 | but quite a lot has happened this morning. |
| 0:54.5 | We have had the resignation of the Health Secretary Michael Matheson. |
| 1:00.3 | We knew that there was going to be a report in time. |
| 1:02.6 | It's not come out yet, but it's linked to this roaming charge bill that we were talking about some months ago. |
| 1:12.6 | David, just backpedal a wee bit for me and tell me what's happened within the past few hours with Michael Matheson. |
| 1:16.7 | Well, I was earlier this morning meeting an MSP for a coffee and they'd just come up to meet me |
| 1:23.1 | and I was casually strolling my phone and I saw another journalist tweet that Michael Matheson had resigned as Health Secretary. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.