CUNNINGHAME North’s MSP, Kenneth Gibson, has hit back at calls for his suspension after a constituent said he broke parliamentary rules in relation to rented accommodation.

In an article published in a national newspaper last weekend, it was claimed that Mr Gibson made between ‘£5,000 and £10,000’ for a property he owns in Glasgow and the complaint is being looked at by the Commissioner for Ethical Standards in Public Life in Scotland.

And this has led for local Labour activists to call for his suspension in what Kenny Gibson describes as a ‘pitiful smear campaign’.

Local Labour Party Constituency Chair Johanna Baxter and Secretary Valerie Reid have demanded Gibson be suspended.

“Kenny Gibson seems intent on setting a personal record for an MSP being referred to Parliamentary watchdogs for his various failures to keep his Register of Interests updated or indeed in this instance to even declare that he had an interest as a Landlord on the Bill being debated,” said Ms Baxter and Reid.

“He has had numerous warnings in the past about these matters but he appears to treat the Parliamentary Authorities as well as his constituents with breathtaking arrogance when it comes to transparency over his or his wife’s - our MP’s - property interests and the income they jointly receive from renting out their Glasgow and Edinburgh homes.

“Obviously not content with their joint salary income of £135,647 the newspaper article alleges they also earn between £15,000 to £20,000 per year in rental income from their property interests while Kenny Gibson simultaneously charges his hotel accommodation in Edinburgh to the public

purse for a further £5371.97 since his wife got elected as an MP last May.

“The MSP code of conduct is quite clear on the requirement for our elected representatives to be transparent about the types of financial interest ‘which might be thought to influence a member’s actions, speeches or votes in the Parliament’ and this is clearly one of these instances.

“The least we can expect from our MSP is transparency even if he is intent on squeezing the last penny from his expenses. The Scottish Government were lobbied extensively by private landlords and their representative organisations on the content of the Private Housing (Tenancies) Bill leading to significant changes on its scope and it is inexcusable that Kenny Gibson as the Convenor of Finance should have conducted an entire Committee Hearing into the Bill’s provisions without being transparent about his or his wife’s interest as landlords themselves” said Ms Reid.

“This latest example of SNP sleaze must surely lead to the SNP taking the same action to suspend Kenny Gibson from the party while these whistleblower’s allegations are investigated “ concluded Ms Reid.

Kenneth Gibson has rubbished the claims and said: “This is a pitiful smear campaign by embittered Labour activists, incapable of coming second let alone winning an election locally or across Scotland.

“The same folk have raised this before.

“However, my declaration of interests makes it clear I don’t make a single penny out of my flat due to rental income being less than the mortgage payments, let alone the invented sum they claim. Neither does my wife Patricia. As for the ‘expenses’ no rental income has been paid to me from the public purse in the 13 years I have been an MSP for Glasgow and then Cunninghame North.

“Of course, had I bought a flat in Edinburgh rather than in Glasgow, the Parliament would have paid the mortgage and council tax, as it did for my Labour predecessor, allowing a huge profit to be made upon sale. I have never supported such a policy – and indeed the SNP abolished it.

“None of my actions were influenced by owning a flat, which was on my declaration of interests and has been for years. Throughout the passage of the Bill referred to, I did not speak at stages one, two or three and voted exactly the same way as my party colleagues.

“As for Johanna Baxter, she should be wary of throwing mud when she has been less than transparent with the voters of Cunninghame North.

“When Labour’s candidate she pretended to live in Skelmorlie, where her husband was not even registered to vote for her last month, saying nothing of the fact she actually lives at 57 Bellenden Road London, where at least two of her husband’s companies are registered, as she has done since 2003.”