Officegate

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Officegate was a political scandal in Scotland in 2001 about unregistered rental income connected to the office of the First Minister, Henry McLeish. It was the first major scandal the Scottish Parliament faced since being revived in 1999 and helped end McLeish’s time in office.

McLeish had been elected MP for Central Fife in 1987. He used very large offices on Hanover Court in Glenrothes and rented out part of the first floor. He did not declare the rent income to the House of Commons register of interests, later saying he had forgotten.

In early 2001 a newspaper reported that McLeish had received five years of rent from the solicitors firm Digby Brown. After the report, he registered the sublet with the House of Commons. A Conservative spokesman, Dominic Grieve, wrote to the Standards Commissioner about the matter. The issue lingered only while McLeish remained an MP, and he left Parliament after the 2001 general election.

There were ongoing calls for him to resign, led mainly by the Scottish National Party, who said the affair damaged his integrity. McLeish argued that the issue was a muddle, not a fiddle. Despite some support from Labour and the Liberal Democrats, he resigned on 8 November 2001. Jack McConnell was then elected leader of Scottish Labour and, with Liberal Democrat backing, was chosen by MSPs as First Minister.