Flynn’s ‘cash-for-access’ lobbying donation stinks to high heaven

Put it another way. I’m a journalist. Let’s pretend you own a big company. I write a story that helps you - it says how great your firm is, maybe. Sometime later you send £30,000 to a media company connected to me.

What’s happened there? What would you call that?

Let’s move on to the SNP’s Westminster leader Stephen Flynn and a £30,000 donation his local party branch received after he lobbied Scottish Government ministers on behalf of an energy firm operating in his patch.

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Here’s the background: in October 2023, Flynn emailed energy minister Gillian Martin concerning the Green Volt scheme, a plan for a huge wind farm off the Aberdeenshire coast by the company Flotation Energy.

Flynn forwarded correspondence he’d received from Flotation Energy seeking “a ministerial meeting to break consent logjam”.

Flynn wrote to Martin: “Please see below correspondence regarding the Green Volt project. I’d be grateful if Scottish Government officials could review the information below and, if appropriate, arrange contact with those involved to discuss these matters further. No detailed response is required just confirmation the below is receiving attention.”

Martin’s assistant private secretary forwarded the email to officials in the Scottish Government’s correspondence unit. Martin was copied in with the message “Fast track MR please”. "MR" reportedly means "ministerial review".

In April 2024, the Scottish Government announced that the Green Volt project had been granted consent. The co-chief technical officer of Flotation Energy is Allan MacAskill, brother of the former SNP justice secretary Kenny MacAskill.

In May, ahead of the General Election, Allan MacAskill donated £30,000 to the SNP branch in Flynn’s Aberdeen South constituency. Flynn registered the donation in August.

What’s happened there? What would you call that? It looks like cash for access.

The north-east Tory MSP Douglas Lumsden has asked if Flynn was promised the donation for his General Election campaign if he lobbied the Scottish Government over the project.

Recently, Flynn was writing in the Daily Record concerning Keir Starmer’s "freebies" scandal, talking about politicians and their “mega-wealthy pals”.

Mocking Starmer’s free glasses paid for by a donor, Flynn said: “I don’t know about you, but I get a little stressed at the thought of having to thank a family member for buying me the wrong jumper for a birthday, let alone a super-rich donor buying the specs I’d be wearing in front of a watching public.”

Flynn added: “Of course, it’s important to say that such clothing gifts come with no attachments. No, none at all. They are all just from the kindness of a filthy-rich donor’s heart. I mean, who doesn’t friends have like that?”

Of course, regarding Flynn and Green Volt, it’s important to say that such donations come with no attachments. No, none at all. They are all just from the kindness of a filthy-rich donor’s heart. I mean, who doesn’t have friends like that?

It really doesn’t matter what this cash was for. If you give me money, or give money to an organisation close to me, you’re buying my influence, and influence over me. I’m, in part, yours once you offer money and it’s received.

However, I guess most readers don’t have the financial wherewithal to buy influence over government. In that sense, democracy is stacked against ordinary citizens in favour of those with wealth who keep politicians in their pockets.

Is this how we want Scotland to work? That you and I are lesser than those with thousands in loose change?

The SNP is - rightly - among the first to denounce any notion of sleaze when it hits Labour or the Conservatives. Yet, as ever, the SNP cannot see the beam in its own eye. The failures of other administrations are down to malevolence, nationalists holler. But any failures on their part is blamed on wicked Westminster.

SNP scandals are always minor, aways spun out of proportion by the right-wing press. Yet, a scandal inside another party is, in nationalist eyes, never minor, never spun out of proportion, indeed the press is often accused of being too soft.

North-east Tory MSP Douglas Lumsden challenged Stephen Flynn over the donation (Image: PA)

In response to Flynn and the Green Volt donation, First Minister John Swinney said: “There’s a financial contribution been made as part of a normal political donation for political purposes and that’s properly been declared.

“It’s a huge policy priority for all of us that want to take action on climate change that we take these decisions properly and promptly to make sure we can secure investment in renewable energy in Scotland.”

Swinney’s comments raise many questions: must money change hands for this "priority" to be acted on "promptly"? Does it matter how good the cause is? Even if money changed hands to increase the number of stars in heaven, is that a good and proper course of action? Lastly, how would Swinney react if the shoe was on the other foot - and this was a Labour or Tory issue?

There’s a simple solution to the problem of political donations: ban them. Ban all donations to political parties.

Political donations open a door to power which the likes of you and I are unable to walk through. As such, they are entirely anti-democratic.

Haven’t we spent decades talking about cleaning up politics, yet still the sleaze around lobbying and donations continues to drip acid over trust?

Indeed, private donations should be criminalised to prevent the risk of corruption. That would require acceptance on behalf of the public that parties would need state funding.

This isn’t rocket science either. Public funding could be calculated according to the level of representation a party has across country. The party can also use its own membership fees and merchandising to fund its endeavours.

However, it’s the political class which sets the rules they live by. So they won’t clean up their act. They’ll keep on keeping on, and we’ll just grow yet more disgusted by what passes for democracy under their rule.

Neil Mackay is the Herald’s Writer at Large. He’s a multi-award-winning investigative journalist, author of both fiction and non-fiction, and a filmmaker and broadcaster. He specialises in intelligence, security, crime, social affairs, cultural commentary, and foreign and domestic politics