Bus tycoon accuses SNP of using taxpayers’ cash like ‘confetti’ in Ferguson Marine ferries scandal – The Scotsman

The owner of one of Scotland’s most successful bus companies has said the controversy over the building of two new ferries at the Ferguson Marine shipyard was a “national embarrassment”.

Sandy Easdale, who owns the Greenock-based McGill’s Buses, spoke out in the wake of fresh revelations the Scottish Government paid consultant Tim Hair a total of £791,285 last year to run the stricken yard in Port Glasgow.

Mr Easdale, who along with his brother James, had expressed an interest in buying the shipyard when it went into administration in 2014, before it was sold to Jim McColl and subsequently won a £97 million contract for two new CalMac vessels.

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