Michael Matheson has been called on to make another statement to the Scottish Parliament amid claims he is "avoiding scrutiny" over an £11,000 data roaming bill.

The embattled Health Secretary faced MSPs last week to explain his official iPad had racked up the eye-watering charge after his teenage sons had used the device as an internet hot spot to watch football while on a family holiday.

The veteran SNP minister had initially denied the roaming bill was caused by personal use and blamed an out-of-date sim card for the charges - which included £7,000 worth of data in a single day.

Opposition parties have insisted Matheson still faces unanswered questions over the scandal and will push for him to make a further statement this week.

Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross said: "Michael Matheson might have run up this eye-watering bill, but he cannot continue to run away from this scandal.

"He – and the other most senior members of the SNP Government – spent the weekend largely avoiding scrutiny and clearly hoping this scandal will just go away.

"That is wishful thinking when we know that the Health Secretary lied to the press and public over whether this parliamentary device had been used for personal purposes.

"His personal statement last week allowed a severely limited time for questioning. A significant number of questions remain wholly unanswered.

"That is why my party is calling for a substantial amount of parliamentary time to be set aside to allow Michael Matheson to make another statement and for us to be allowed extensive questioning to get answers."

"Until he resigns, or Humza Yousaf does the right thing and sacks him, my party will continue to use every method possible in Parliament to hold Michael Matheson to account for his lies and lack of answers.”

Scottish Labour Deputy leader Jackie Baillie said “It is astounding that Michael Matheson is still clinging on to his job after being caught in a lie and embroiled in an expenses scandal.

"Humza Yousaf should have sacked his Health Secretary as soon as it became clear that he had knowingly misled the public – but instead he has become complicit in his lies.

"If Michael Matheson isn’t going to do the honourable thing and resign from government, he must come before Parliament this week to answer the many questions still hanging over him."

Yousaf yesterday again defended Matheson as a "man of integrity"

The First Minister said: "For me, Michael – who I’ve known for well over 15 years – is a man of integrity, honesty. He should have handled the situation better, Michael knows that and he’s apologised for that."

Yousaf also denied Matheson had misled him on the issue.

Questioned on the matter after chairing NHS Forth Valley’s annual review, the Health Secretary said today he had set out what happened in "great detail in my personal statement to Parliament"

Asked directly if he had lied to the press, Matheson stated: “I set out all the circumstances and explained the way in which I’d handled it in the course of my personal statement last week.”

However, he said he was now “focused on making sure I do my job as Health Secretary in supporting the health and social care system in Scotland” over the winter period.

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