Glasgow's Lord Provost has billed the taxpayer £8,000 for 23 pairs of shoes and other beauty and clothing items, it has been revealed.
SNP councillor Eva Bolander also claimed for six jackets at £374.50, five coats at £665, underwear at £152 and a £200 hat made by a designer on expenses.
The Daily Record reports that she claimed back £751 of haircuts, glasses worth £358 and beauty treatments including getting her toenails painted. There were at least 20 nail treatments amounting to £479.
READ MORE: Obituary: Pat Lally, former Glasgow Lord Provost
Her predecessor, Sadie Docherty, made no claims during her stint in office between May 2015 and May 2017 but Bolander has claimed for more than 150 items between May 2017 and August 2019.
Martin McElroy, a Labour councillor in the city, last night hit out comparing the politician to Imelda Marcos who was the former first lady of the Phillippines who had more than 1000 pairs of shoes.
READ MORE: Letters: Rolls-Royce will backfire on Glasgow's Lord Provost
He 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?”
In her role as Lord Provost, the Anderston and Yorkhill councillor chairs council meetings, represents the local authority on ceremonial occasions and receives ambassadors to the city. A civic allowance helps her fulfil public duties.
The Swedish-born councillor became the first EU national to be chosen at the city's Lord Provost.
A 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.”
Last year, it was revealed that the council came under controversy after accepting a two-year-old black Rolls Royce Ghost to drive Lord Provost Eva Bolander to official events and for visiting VIP.
The gift, which came from Boyd Tunnock, cost around £235,305 brand new and has high fuel consumption.
Eva previously said: "I want Glasgow to show its best face to the world and this gift will help us do that.
“It’s a show-stopping car and a tremendous asset.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel