LABOUR’S last remaining MP in Scotland accepted £5000 from a Tory donor during his failed campaign to become his party’s deputy leader.

The MP for Edinburgh South, who was appointed shadow Scottish secretary when new leader Keir Starmer was elected, took the cash from financial consultant Mark Bathgate, according to his new register of interests.

Bathgate runs Tweeddale Advisors in London and has previously backed former Tory minister Liam Fox.

Records from the House of Commons show the financial consultant gave Scots-born Fox money when he was shadow secretary for defence in 2009. In March of that year Fox recorded that Bathgate had contributed to the staffing and running of his private office.

And later that same year, in December, Fox recorded he had been given a further £5000 from Bathgate for his private office.

READ MORE: Labour's Ian Murray: 'My party now knows Scotland’s importance'

Months later Bathgate told the Daily Mirror he had avoided tax by making the donations. He told the newspaper by putting the cash through his firm he had only paid 28% in corporation tax rather than 40% income tax.

He said: "It's tax dodging if you like by putting it through the company. You can write Mark Bathgate is a Conservative donor and saved a little bit of tax in the way he did it."

According to The Herald, Bathgate is an old friend of Fox and Murray – despite their political differences. Murray is vocally pro-Europe while Fox is a Brexiteer.

The newspaper said Bathgate had also been described as a friend by former chief executive of the Vote Leave campaign Matthew Elliot.

Bathgate said he had given the money from his own income rather than via his company.

He said: “A long long time ago I made one donation to Conservatives.

“Ian is a long standing personal friend. We were both at Edinburgh Uni in the mid 1990s and ran the Edinburgh University Hearts Supporters Club together there for a while.

“As you’ll see from my Twitter feed, I’m very pro-Remain. As the Conservative Party became more and more Brexit only over the last decade, I moved away.

“I voted Labour in the last two General Elections.”

Murray has so far registered £39,000 in donations towards his deputy leadership campaign – which saw him eliminated in the second round after getting just over 14% of the vote.

The shadow Scottish secretary said: “Mark is a close personal friend, a fellow diehard Jambo, a Labour voter and a Remain supporter - and I’m extremely grateful for his donation.

“Campaigns like this are very expensive, and I was humbled to receive so much backing from Labour members and supporters with over 400 donations averaging under £45 to my Crowdfunder appeal.

"Thank you to everyone who ensured Scotland’s voice was heard during the leadership elections."

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