Fiona Hyslop under pressure over T in the park funding

Culture Secretary Fiona Hyslop is under increasing pressure for failing to answer questions on a Scottish Government payment of £150,000 to the T in the Park music festival.

Scottish Labour has called for Hyslop to make a full ministerial statement on the issue, while the Scottish Conservatives have called for First Minister Nicola Sturgeon to intervene. 

DF Concerts, a private company that runs the music festival was awarded the grant after a meeting brokered by Jennifer Dempsie, a former SNP aide.

Hyslop told Holyrood’s Education and Culture Committee this morning the funding was appropriate, transparent and in line with amounts given to other events.

She said she had been “standing up” for the event. "My interest is the economic interest of this country and the cultural offering we have got for generations of young people, and the development of the contemporary music scene in Scotland," she said.

However the committee queried why 600 pages of heavily redacted documents were only released at 8pm on Monday evening.

Scottish Labour’s Deputy Leader, Alex Rowley, said the Cabinet Secretary’s appearance was “unsatisfactory” and called for a full parliamentary statement.

“I don’t think anyone could hold that up as a shining example of transparent government, so it’s not surprising that some of the Cabinet Secretary’s answers were greeted with incredulity. Between the committee evidence and the freedom of information documents, the last twenty-four hours have raised more questions than they have answered,” he said.

The documents appear to show a meeting between Dempsie and Hyslop at SNP conference, before discussions with government officials, but it unclear what was discussed.

It is also unclear what the £150,000 was spent on.

Scottish Conservative culture spokeswoman Liz Smith called for First Minister Nicola Sturgeon to intervene.

“T in the Park is a commercially viable festival supported by one of our largest breweries; the Scottish Government put on record today that it did not examine other possible funding sources in detail so this just increases the pressure on the cabinet secretary to explain why £150,000 of public money was required,” she said.

Dempsie had planned to stand for the SNP in next year’s Holyrood election but withdrew her nomination this month.