{"id":404909,"date":"2025-09-07T09:38:17","date_gmt":"2025-09-07T09:38:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/404909\/"},"modified":"2025-09-07T09:38:17","modified_gmt":"2025-09-07T09:38:17","slug":"msp-colin-smyth-living-in-taxpayer-funded-edinburgh-flat-despite-holyrood-toilet-spy-cam-probe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/404909\/","title":{"rendered":"MSP Colin Smyth living in taxpayer-funded Edinburgh flat despite Holyrood toilet spy cam probe"},"content":{"rendered":"

The MSP has been charged in connection with alleged possession of indecent images of children and in relation to allegations a hidden camera was placed in a cubicle inside the Scottish Parliament.<\/p>\n

04:30, 07 Sep 2025Updated 08:33, 07 Sep 2025<\/p>\n

Colin Smyth has been charged in connection with alleged possession of indecent images of children and in relation to allegations a hidden camera was placed in a cubicle inside the Scottish Parliament.<\/p>\n

Colin Smyth<\/a> is living in a taxpayer-funded Edinburgh flat despite being at the centre of a toilet spy cam police probe and banned from Parliament.<\/p>\n

The MSP has been charged in connection with alleged possession of indecent images of children and in relation to allegations a hidden camera<\/a> was placed in a cubicle inside the Scottish Parliament.<\/p>\n

His Holyrood pass was deactivated on August 28 and he is understood not to be contributing to parliamentary proceedings<\/a> after being signed off work on medical grounds.<\/p>\n

Colin Smyth expenses screen shots.
\nColin Smyth expenses screen shots..<\/p>\n

But the Sunday Mail can reveal Smyth is living rent free near the parliament building. His most recently published expenses show claims of \u00a3865 a month along with \u00a32,308 a year for council tax and hundreds of pounds in utility bills for the property<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A source said: \u201cMost MSPs just stay in a hotel as and when their work it but given the distance to his constituency Colin has a permanent fully furnished flat with all bills paid for by the tax payer.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has been effectively banned from entering the parliament building and is not doing any work at the moment but he is continuing to take advantage of his free flat.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smyth also has a family home Dumfries. However after he was arrested he released a statement saying he was living elsewhere.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cAfter my address was published, I felt I had no choice but to move away to protect my family.\u201d<\/p>\n

Colin Smyth expenses screen shots. <\/p>\n

At least five MSPs along with several journalists and staff had been contacted by police over alleged secret toilet recordings <\/a>in Parliament.<\/p>\n

Detectives have been interviewing people identified in footage<\/a> and officers were forced to carry out an emergency sweep of the building.<\/p>\n

Smyth has previously denied any wrongdoing. He did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

Central Scotland MSP Graham Simpson said: \u201cIf there is no prospect of Colin Smyth returning to Holyrood any time soon then he should be seriously considering giving this up as he has no need for it.<\/p>\n

\u201cParliament chiefs should be discussing this with him very soon.<\/p>\n

\u201cMSPs are entitled to allowances covering renting accommodation in Edinburgh, depending on where they live, so that they can have somewhere to stay when they are in parliament.<\/p>\n

Smyth has previously denied any wrongdoing. He did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

A Labour spokesperson said: \u201cSwift action was taken after we became aware of these serious allegations. Colin Smyth MSP is an independent MSP.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe cannot comment further on these deeply concerning developments while legal proceedings are ongoing.\u201d<\/p>\n

It has emerged Smyth met a Girl Guides group at Holyrood days after he was charged<\/a> with possessing indecent images of children.<\/p>\n

The MSP who was first elected nine years ago and has held senior roles within Labour, welcomed the teenage girls to the parliament over a week after the police action. He has been told to attend court later this month and he has been suspended from Labour.<\/p>\n

A provisional court date has been set for September 24 at Dumfries Sheriff Court. The former Scottish Labour general secretary has said he is \u201cfully co-operating\u201d with the investigation.<\/p>\n

Since news of the spycam<\/a> became public MSPs have been asked to reassure staff working at Holyrood..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The MSP has been charged in connection with alleged possession of indecent images of children and in relation…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":404589,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8816],"tags":[748,30,1102,4884,712,11312,12550,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-404909","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edinburgh","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-courts","10":"tag-edinburgh","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-scotland","13":"tag-scottish-government","14":"tag-sunday-mail","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115162350338522912","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=404909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404909\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/404589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}