CONTROVERSIAL plans to hand constituency MSPs £17,000 more in allowances than their list colleagues have passed their first hurdle – but only on the casting vote of the presiding officer.
Critics have warned the move – proposed by an independent panel reviewing MSPs' expenses – will create two classes of politician at Holyrood.
The SNP and the Tories tried to kill off the idea when it came to the cross-party Scottish Parliamentary
Corporate Body this week.
But the Labour and Liberal Democrat members of the SPCB wanted just to "note" the proposal and let the full parliament debate the issue.
Presiding officer Alex Fergusson, who chairs the SPCB, used his casting vote to side with them.
But opponents of the plan claim there is a majority among MSPs to defeat the proposed differential when it comes to a vote in the debating chamber.
Under the proposals, drawn up by a panel chaired by Dundee University principal Sir Alan Langlands, Holyrood's 73 constituency MSPs would each get £62,000 to cover two or two-and-a-half members of staff, while the 56 regional list MSPs would get £45,000 for one or one-and-a-half posts.
The panel said they were satisfied constituency MSPs had to deal with a bigger caseload of individuals' problems than their regional colleagues and so needed more staff.
The cost of the proposed increase in allowances is estimated at around £1 million.
And the opponents of the Langlands scheme have come up with an alternative package for the same figure, giving constituency and list MSPs the same amount – around £54,000 each – for staff costs.
List MSPs dispute the claim their workload is less and say the proposals are divisive.
And there has been fierce debate inside the parties on the rights and wrongs of the proposed differential.
Lothians Labour MSP George Foulkes said having different staff allowances for constituency and list members would mean two tiers of MSPs.
He said: "There ought to be no difference between the two.
"Although constituency members have a lot of individual cases to deal with from one constituency, regional members have to deal with people throughout a whole region, which includes nine constituencies. It is a different workload, but it is about equal.
"The principle that all MSPs should be treated equally is set out in the code of conduct."
Independent Lothians MSP Margo MacDonald said: "MSPs have different workloads depending on the constituency or region they represent, their personality, expertise, interests, all sorts of things.
"But the fact they are a constituency or regional MSP has nothing to do with it."
Although constituency MSPs outnumber list members, the opponents of the Langlands proposals claim a combination of the SNP, Conservatives, Greens and Ms MacDonald will be enough to carry the alternative scheme.
The full article contains 474 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
