MSP Michael Matheson claims he's a Partick Thistle fan and DIDN'T watch Rangers vs Celtic with his sons after £7000 bill

Under-fire MSP Michael Matheson didn't even watch the football match that racked up a £7,000 mobile data bill on his iPad - because he claims he's a Partick Thistle supporter.

Scottish Government health secretary Matheson is under pressure to resign after his expenses showed a £11,000 bill attributed to data roaming while he was on holiday in Morocco. £7,000 of that was racked up on one day, January 2 when Celtic drew 2-2 with Rangers at Ibrox, as his government device used more than 6GB of data. He's since claimed that was down to his two sons 'simply wanting to watch the football.'

Matheson had initially claimed he'd used his mobile hotspot himself to provide data for other devices but admitted on Wednesday it had been used by his children to stream the football while on holiday. Many have questioned why Matheson didn't disclose that right away and he has since apologised, claiming he was only trying to protect his two boys from 'political and media scrutiny.'

Matheson was emotional as he addressed parliament over the incident, and STV's Colin Mackay claims he didn't watch the game himself. It's said he has no Glasgow allegiance outside of Partick Thistle.

The broadcaster's politics editor said: "You can see there the toll this has taken on Michael Matheson and his family, too. He didn't even watch the game because he's a Partick Thistle supporter, he didn't know his sons had been watching either."