DOUGLAS Ross has been criticised after resuming his third job as a football referee.
The Scottish Tory leader, who is the MP for Moray as well as a Highlands & Islands MSP, last officiated at a game in January last year before injuries kept him off from the pitch.
The Herald revealed in November that he had failed to declare £6,700 in fees from 16 matches in his MP’s register and he was forced to apologise and referred himself to a Commons watchdog.
Now Mr Ross now plans to return to the game as a linesman in the Scottish League Cup match between Elgin City and Queen of the South on Saturday.
Although both Westminster and Holyrood will be in recess, the SNP criticised Mr Ross over his ‘triple-jobbing’.
Livingston MP Hannah Bardell said: “Douglas Ross’s priorities are all wrong.
“In the middle of a cost of living crisis where people are terrified to open their bills, Douglas Ross is choosing to run the line when he’s not dancing to the tune of whatever his Tory bosses in London are playing.
“After 18 months without him, it’s clear that Scottish football can continue just fine without Douglas Ross - no matter how important he thinks he is to the game. It’s time to give it up and focus on one of the other three jobs he currently holds.
“If Douglas Ross believes there is genuinely nothing else he can do with his time during Parliamentary recess, he should give himself the red card - before his party gives it to him.”
Mr Ross, 39, has been a qualified referee for almost 20 years, working in games both in Scotland and across Europe.
He once missed a House of Commons vote to officiate at a Barcelona match in the Champions League, leading one SNP MP to brandish a red card across the chamber.
It led him to promise not to accept appointments while parliament is sitting - something which saw him dropping out of the running to officiate at the 2018 World Cup.
The Scottish Tories have been asked for comment.
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