Gray’s veto of Cammy Day appointment is sheer hypocrisy - Susan Dalgety
Health secretary Neil Gray has a brass neck; so brazen that I suspect he carries a can of Brasso in his briefcase to make sure it stays super shiny. He has just vetoed Cllr Cammy Day’s appointment to the board of NHS Lothian.
A government spokes-person said that Gray had intervened as he had a responsibility to ensure that NHS Boards “operate with integrity” and “command public confidence”.
“It was concluded that proceeding with the appointment [of Cllr Day] would not best support those objectives”.
In other words, the health secretary had decided that the former leader of Edinburgh City Council was not a fit and proper person to preside over the delivery of the city’s health and social care services.
Mr Gray may have a point. After all, in 2024 Cllr Day was forced to resign as council leader and was thrown out of the Labour group after reports that he had sent inappropriate messages to Ukrainian refugees.
A subsequent police investigation found no evidence of any crime and so he was re-admitted to the Labour group. But his strange behaviour did not end there.
Later this week, councillors will debate a motion from the Scottish Greens about Cllr Day’s behaviour, after revelations that he had used a false name to lodge an official complaint with the Ethical Standards Commissioner about another city representative, Cllr Ross McKenzie - a move Cllr Day later admitted was wrong and for which he apologised “unreservedly”.
What these two incidents tell me is that the councillor lacks judgement and is prone to indulge in imprudent and impetuous behaviour.
I have no doubt there was a party political element to the health secretary’s decision – after all there is an election in three months’ time. But it’s also evident that Cllr Day’s past behaviour gave the minister an excuse to block his appointment to the board of NHS Lothian.
But this is the same health secretary who had to apologise to parliament, not once but twice, for using ministerial cars to ferry him to football matches.
In November 2024, he was forced to say sorry for having “given the impression of acting more as a fan and less as a minister” after using taxpayer-funded cars to take him to watch his beloved Aberdeen FC.
And a few weeks later he had to say sorry again after admitting that all his trips had not been properly logged with the parliament. His behaviour therefore begs the question: has Neil Gray always operated with ‘integrity’ in the course of his ministerial duties and is he able to ‘command public confidence’?
If the answer is “no” to the first question and “unlikely” to the second, then surely, by his own high standards, Neil Gray is not a fit and proper person to preside over our national health service.
Council leader Jane Meagher has written to the health secretary demanding that he explain his decision “in more detail”. She will wait in vain for a further explanation.
After all, the minister is hardly likely to say he relished the chance to score a political point against a Labour politician. That, and he will be too busy polishing his brass neck.