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THE boss of T in the Park yesterday rubbished claims that he threatened to pull the music festival out of Scotland if it wasn’t awarded public funding.

DF Concerts’ chief executive Geoff Ellis prompted further ­questions for Scotland’s Culture Secretary Fiona Hyslop as he broke his silence on the row involving a controversial £150,000 handout.

Hyslop told Holyrood’s culture committee that she had been informed the festival could ­relocate because of the “severely reduced revenues” from moving the event from Balado to Strathallan Castle in Perthshire.

Ellis said: “I’ve never ­threatened a government minister and I wouldn’t make those threats.”

He added: “I told the minister what was open to us. We could have had a single-stage event on multiple nights, which we would have had to risk far less money on, but the returns would have been broadly similar. But we don’t want to do that.”

Hyslop told MSPs that T in the Park needed cash to cover the “unanticipated costs” of moving the festival.

She claimed that organisers “would not be in a position that they would want to continue” if costs, including relocating from Balado to Strathallan, were not covered.

Ellis backed Hyslop against accusations she acted improperly over the funding allocation.

(Image: PA)

Critics have suggested Ellis got priority access to Hyslop because ex-first minister Alex Salmond’s former aide Jennifer Dempsie set up the meeting.

Dempsie was working on a contract for DF Concerts as a festival project manager when she set up the meeting between Ellis and Hyslop that led to the grant.

Ellis told the Sunday Herald: “Did I get priority access? I don’t think so. Fiona knows who I am. The fact that she (Dempsie) set up the meeting, so what?

“Was the meeting only had because Jennifer set it up? No.”

Ellis said the festival got funding from the then Labour-Lib Dem administration before 2007.

Labour MSP James Kelly said: “The more we learn about the background to this deal, the shakier Hyslop’s story becomes.”

A spokesman for Hyslop said: “The sheer hypocrisy of Labour’s ­position was exposed when it was revealed the previous ­administration at Holyrood also gave T in the Park funding.”