Swinney, who was responsible for cutting spending and imposing a two-year pay freeze in the public sector, sold his Edinburgh residence for £430,000 having bought the four-bedroom apartment on one of the capital’s most desirable streets for £355,000 in December 2003 while SNP leader.
At the time, the two-storey terraced property was the most expensive second home ever bought by an MSP.
Swinney on a salary of £100,000 a year, used parliamentary allowances to pay the interest on his RBS mortgage, ultimately claiming more than £60,000 from the public purse.
He also claimed around £10,000 to pay council tax for the Band G property on Morningside’s Hermitage Terrace.
Swinney, whose main home is in his North Tayside constituency, put the Edinburgh property on the market in June for “offers over £395,000”.
The prospectus praised its “magnificent” 23-foot drawing room, private front garden, “delightful leafy outlook” over Blackford Hill to the rear. It was under offer within weeks.
An application to record the final sale at £430,000 was made to Registers of Scotland on August 1. After capital gains tax, Mr Swinney made a profit of around £57,000.
Announcing a £1.3 billion cut in public spending in February, he said he wanted to “help households facing pay restraint and … increases in VAT and fuel prices”. However, he has also warned the public: “Hard choices must be made.”
Mr Swinney’s gain on the property was one of the largest ever recorded by an MSP.
Swinney has earned a fortune thanks to British taxpayers(Image: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)
He enjoys the good life courtesy of the Scottish taxpayer, who, have stumped up over £2.5 million to his salary since he entered Holyrood in 1999.A huge figure is further boosted by his ministerial salary between 2007 and 2023. His two years in Bute House added around £200,000 to the sum and the figure does not include his four years as MP for Tayside North between 1997 and 2001, or the expenses he will have claimed during that period. Estimated at £500.000
Swinney as the current first minister, stands to earn a further £950,000 plus expenses
Total cost to the Scottish taxpayer. Approximately £5 million
Putting his pay into context, a worker on the average Scottish wage since 1999 would have earned around £696,000 in the same time period. The Herald
Swinney’s hypocrisy exposed as SNP MSPs own second homes portfolio worth £4.5m
Michelle Thomson, who has stood down as MSP for Falkirk East, is the SNP’s property queen(Image: Andrew Milligan/PA Wire)
At the end of May 2025, which is the last time the Scottish Parliament register of interests was published, SNP politicians owned a litany of second, third and even fourth homes as well as rental and commercial property worth at least £4.5million.
MSPs do not have to register any home used as their main residence, or even properties they own which are used by their spouse or civil partner. Under the Holyrood rules, many MSPs are also entitled to rent a flat in Edinburgh at taxpayers’ expense.
Three SNP MSPs in the last parliament owned shares in property companies, including Colin Beattie who runs Ben Sheann Enterprises with his wife. The firm owns at least six rental properties in the north of England, worth £924,180.
Flat in Edinburgh, worth £150-£200k, rental income £10-£15k, Sold in April 2024
- Commercial property in Fife, worth £200-@250k, rental income £5-£10k, Sold in June 2024
Public finance minister Ivan McKee and his wife run a Glasgow property firm with assets worth £656,088, while Michele Thomson is involved with two different property companies.
Keith Brown:
One-sixth share in a flat in East Lothian, worth £150-£200k
Kenneth Gibson:
Flat in Glasgow, worth £150-£200k, rental income £10-£15k
Gillian Martin:
- Cottage in Aberdeenshire, worth £50-£100k
Michael Matheson:
Michael Matheson refused to step down over his expenses scandal(Image: Jane Barlow/PA Wire)
House in the Highlands, worth £250-£300k, rental income £15-£20k
Ivan McKee:
- House in Stirling, worth £500-£600k, rental income £10-£15k, Sold March 2025
- Half-owner of EISM Properties Ltd, which owns fixed assets worth £656,088
Paul McLennan:
- House in Dunbar, East Lothian, worth £150k-£200k, rental income up to £5k
Audrey Nicoll:
Half-owner of flat in Edinburgh worth £200-£250k
Michelle Thomson:
- House in Edinburgh, worth £150-£200k, rental income up to £5k
- Flat in Edinburgh, worth £200-£250k, rental income up to £5k
- Flat in West Lothian, worth £50-£100k, rental income up to £5k
- Sole trader of Thomson Holdings, a property investment company. Paid £10-£15k per year
- Director of Senza Rit Ltd, a property management company
Eveylyn Tweed:
- Commercial property in Stirling, worth £50-£100k, Sold March 2024
- House in Angus, worth £250-£300k
Living rent-free Claiming to be away from home
Collette Stevenson – Monthly rent £1,032.47
Alasdair Allan – Monthly rent £1,475
- Elena Whitham – Monthly rent £995
- Emma Harper – Monthly rent £1,095
- Emma Roddick – Monthly rent £1,200
- Gillian Martin – Monthly rent £1,069
- Graeme Dey – Monthly rent £1,195
- Jackie Dunbar – Monthly rent £848.25
- Karen Adam – Monthly rent £1,344
- Kenneth Gibson – Monthly rent £1,550
- Kevin Stewart – Monthly rent £925
- Mairi Gougeon – Monthly rent £925
- Maree Todd – Monthly rent £1,218.13
- Richard Lochhead – Monthly rent £800
- Ruth Maguire – Monthly rent £960
- Siobhian Brown – Monthly rent £1,150
- Stuart McMillan – Monthly rent £1,200
caltonjock 
TBQH the whole regulations for our politicians requires serious discussion and overhaul, IF politicians require accommodation there should be a pool of Scottish government owned flats like student accommodation with modest furnishings supplied, all the basics should be supplied and a realistic maximum distance from their constituency should be considered before they are allocated accommodation , why are politicians any different from workers who have to travel distances for their employment
As it stands it appears that politicians are extremely well remunerated for the benefit they contribute to Scotland , they all appear to be quite extravagant in their claims for expenses , accommodation and other requirements , again TBQH most of the current crop of (parasites) sorry politicians appear to be grossly unqualified for the positions they hold
LikeLike
Why don’t you just nail your colours to the unionist mast?
LikeLiked by 1 person
So speaks an idealist. Blind to pragmatism
LikeLike
Swinney the weakest man in politics with the most non-effective plan for Independence!!! Made promises he just could never delivery, why did he make these promises?
The Murrell’s couldn’t afford for the SNP to lose the election and Swinney was given the leadership in order to stop what was coming and that’s exactly what he has done. It was never about Independence Independence isn’t what the SNP supports anymore.
Last year the SNP lost another 8,500 in membership and the strange thing is the leadership isn’t even bother that the party in total has lost over 80,000 members or more in the course of 12yrs.
John Swinney in my opinion has sacrificed Scotland and the SNP completely to defend the Murrell’s. He stood on a ticket of guaranteeing a referendum knowing he was lying and I can’t believe for a minute the SNP isn’t going to suffer for these lies he told during the Holyrood election. We all know that nothing will happen until the Westminster election where the SNP will stand on the Indy ticket in order to obtain the short money but the Indy ticket will be a tramp which will be in the small print that would never have be delivered.
But I don’t believe the SNP will win big in the Westminster election because we already know the Scots are starting to realize the SNP is a fraud and just aren’t voting for them anymore. So it’ll be 2031 and the only thing that will happen is John Swinney will stand down and we’ll end up with another tosser who won’t deliver anything other for himself SF and it’ll be at this point I believe the SNP will fold as a party and who’s to blame the Murrell’s and John Swinney, history will not be kind to these individuals.
All of these events are predicable and lets not forget these people who help it all come about The National, Gingerdug, Pop, Riddock, the SNP membership and the leadership.
Will Scotland be Independence YES but not by the SNP it be the likes of Salvo and Liberation Scotland the real people fighting Scotland corner.
LikeLiked by 1 person
‘Fuar-chràbhaiche’ is Dcottish Gaelic for hypocrite, and this is true true in almost every language!
LikeLiked by 1 person