Data returned from the Piano ‘meterActive/meterExpired’ callback event.
As a subscriber, you are shown 80% less display advertising when reading our articles.
Those ads you do see are predominantly from local businesses promoting local services.
These adverts enable local businesses to get in front of their target audience – the local community.
It is important that we continue to promote these adverts as our local businesses need as much support as possible during these challenging times.
Edinburgh 2°c
Malcolm Offord was joined by International Trade Secretary Liz Truss in India
SCOTLAND Office minister Malcolm Offord has been branded an “expensive waste of space” after the full details of his flashy trade trip to India were revealed.
The failed Tory Holyrood election candidate and party donor, who took his seat in the House of Lords on October 14, was flown to Mumbai just a week later to take part in a trip which aimed to “challenge traditional perspectives of the UK” in India.
The main point of the trip, according to a press release from the Scotland Office – where Offord is parliamentary under secretary to Scottish Secretary Alister Jack – was to reduce import tariffs on Scotch whisky in India. Although excise duty on imported whisky to Maharashtra was cut by 50%, the second most populated state in the country, the SNP said Offord failed to get a “meaningful result” from the trip.
The full details of Offord’s four day trip were revealed after The National lodged a Freedom of Information (FOI) request with the Scotland Office asking for briefing notes, associated costs and any related reports for the trip between October 21 and 25.
READ MORE: Tory donor Malcolm Offord ‘honoured to be selected, if not elected’ to House of Lords
In a 34-page briefing document prepared for Offord, the introduction states he was in Mumbai to support the visit of the Royal Navy’s Carrier Strike Group to India.
Offord’s schedule included attending joint-performances of the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo and Hormuzd Khambata Dance Company and hosting a tour of the HMS Queen Elizabeth for “senior Indian business, government and military guests”.
He also attended an evening reception on-board HMS Defender with Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, the British High Commissioner, UK Trade Commissioner and assembled “senior business, political, military and diplomatic corps guests”.
In the pre-event briefing notes for Offord, it suggests a “personal anecdote re Scotch” and to tell attendees the event has shown a “new side of UK culture, food and drink in India”.
Bizarrely, on three occasions whisky is misspelled as “whiskey” three times in the lengthy briefing notes.
The Scotland Office said it did not hold copies of meeting notes and other materials consumed during Offord’s trip, but included a diplomatic telegram from Deputy High Commissioner Alan Gemmell. In the report, Gemmell says Offord “supported events” which promoted Scotch whisky.
It said: “His support raised the debate around whisky tariffs that – if reduced – have the potential to increase exports to India by up to £1.2bn over five years. The Scotland Office will support with further engagement that ensures the Scotch Whisky Association and other stakeholders’ views are fed into FTA considerations.”
An SNP spokesperson said: “Malcolm Offord is an unelected Lord who has no place representing Scotland or Scottish businesses in an official capacity. He was parachuted into the Scotland Office because the Scottish Tory MPs were deemed too useless to do the job, but the signal failure of Offord’s mission to India to deliver any meaningful result strongly suggests he too is an expensive waste of space.”
READ MORE: Malcolm Offord’s peerage should be withdrawn, Mhairi Black demands
The Scotland Office said it only contributed £7588.25 towards the trip for Offord and three officials, whose names were redacted. Of that amount, £2997 was spent on four flights, £4097.61 spent on hotels and subsistence, £399 on Covid testing and £94.74 on travel and insurance.
The response said: “Details of payments for the hire of event spaces, amounts paid to artists and staff, food and hospitality for guests at the events and other relevant costs were funded through private sponsorship or other government departments and are not held by the Office of the Secretary of State for Scotland.”
The National approached both the Foreign Office and Department of International Trade to ask if they had contributed to the trip and if they would reveal how much. Neither responded to our request by time of publication.
A spokesperson for the Scotland Office said: “Working closely with Scottish business stakeholders and cultural institutions, minister Malcolm Offord met with leading political and business representatives from a wide range of sectors in Mumbai to foster closer trade ties.”
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions. What should we do with our second vote in 2021? What happens if Westminster says no to indyref2?
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversation, register under fake names, and post vile abuse. We’ve had hundreds of emails from you complaining about this, asking us to take steps to ensure that these people aren’t given a platform on our site.
We’re listening to you, and here’s how we plan to make that happen.
We have decided to make the ability to comment only available to our 12,000 paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them.
We’ll be monitoring this change over the first few weeks, and we’re keen to know your thoughts. Email us at letters@thenational.scot if you want to have your say.
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community – a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Last Updated:
Are you sure you want to delete this comment?
Get involved with the news in your community
This website and associated newspapers adhere to the Independent Press Standards Organisation’s Editors’ Code of Practice. If you have a complaint about the editorial content which relates to inaccuracy or intrusion, then please contact the editor here. If you are dissatisfied with the response provided you can contact IPSO here
©Copyright 2001-2021. This site is part of Newsquest’s audited local newspaper network. A Gannett Company. Published from its offices at 125 Fullarton Drive, Glasgow and printed in Scotland by Newsquest (Herald & Times) a division of Newsquest Media Group Ltd, registered in England & Wales with number 01676637 at Loudwater Mill, Station Road, High Wycombe HP10 9TY – a Gannett company.