OFF MESSAGE

SNP minister blasts colleagues, criticises how bosses dealt with sex pest scandal and dismissed Queen’s Jubilee as ’bollocks’ in leaked WhatsApp group chats

- PAUL HUTCHEON

AN SNP minister blasted Cabinet colleagues and dismissed the late Queen's "royalist Jubilee as bollocks" in a spate of foul mouthed messages.

Elena Whitham also criticised her party's handling of harassment claims against sex pest MP Patrick Grady and mocked opposition MSPs.

In a series of scathing WhatsApp messages leaked to the Daily Record, Whitham lays into deputy First Minister Shona Robison - branding her a "cold fish" and "painful to listen to".

She also hits out at culture minister Angus Robertson, saying "the ego has landed" when he was given a Cabinet job.

On the SNP's continuing support for Grady she said:" "Why are we supporting Grady? Honestly?"

Whitham's outbursts prompted claims by opposition MSPs that the SNP group at Holyrood is in "disarray".

Whitham also issued an apology for her outspoken and foul-mouthed remarks.

Labour MSP Jackie Baillie said: "What these leaks go to show is that the SNP is in disarray with a Scottish Government minister slagging off colleagues right, left and centre. The fact is that this is a party out of ideas, out of control and out of time."

Whitham became Drugs and Alcohol Policy Minister in March after Humza Yousaf became First Minister.

Leaked messages from an internal WhatsApp group, handed to the Record, show her making disparaging comments about SNP colleagues - including senior cabinet colleagues.

She said of the then social justice cabinet secretary Shona Robison during a Holyrood statement on poverty in 2021: "Shona needing to find her stride here. She is struggling.

"It is a great statement and we are doing so much amazing work but she isn't selling it as well as she could.

She added: "She is a bit of a cold fish.

The MSP for Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley followed up this criticism with a further dig: "She is like an automaton.