By Eniola Amadu
The Scottish and UK governments are in dispute over who should cover the costs of US President Donald Trump and Vice-President JD Vance’s recent visits to Scotland.
Mr Trump spent four days in July touring his golf resorts in Ayrshire and Aberdeenshire.
According to BBC Scotland News, the Scottish government has asked the Treasury to reimburse around £20 million in policing and security expenses.
However, UK ministers maintain that the trip was a private visit, meaning the Scottish government is responsible for footing the bill.
Scotland’s finance secretary, Shona Robinson also seeks to recover £6m for Vice President JD Vance’s August holiday policing costs in Ayrshire.
In a letter to the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, James Murray, Robinson pointed out that UK ministers covered the costs for Donald Trump’s trip to Scotland in 2018.
“There is a clear previous precedent, where the UK government has supported policing costs for visits to devolved nations by foreign dignitaries.” She said.
According to provisional figures published by the Scottish government, the visit cost Police Scotland £24.1m. Despite this, the UK government insists it is not liable for the bill.
“These visits by the president and the vice president were private visits to Scotland and of course policing is a devolved matter to the Scottish government.” Murray said in response.
He stated that the government covers the security costs for official visits. “The UK government only pays for security costs when the visit is an official visit on the back of a formal invitation and that wasn’t the case this time.”
Meanwhile, Scottish Public Finance Minister, Ivan McKee revealed Trump’s visit was “stretching the bounds of credibility to say this was just a private holiday trip” saying it had “absolutely” been for work.
He accused the UK government for insisting that Scotland can’t afford independence and yet expects it to cover the costs of visits from foreign dignitaries.
“The UK government never tires of telling us that we can’t afford to be independent which is clearly nonsense but they expect us to be able to pay for the visits of international dignitaries.”
“We think we have got a very strong case here and you would expect the UK government to see sense on this” he said.
The visit to Scotland earlier this year was described by the White House as both “private” and “working”’ visit.
