Officegate

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The Officegate scandal was a controversy surrounding then Scottish First Minister Henry McLeish in 2001. It resulted in his resignation from the post.

While McLeish was a Westminster Member of Parliament between 1987 and 1998, before the advent of devolution, he sub-let his constituency office in Glenrothes, Fife, but failed to register it, or refund the income to the House of Commons.

The issue was raised by the Scottish Conservative & Unionist Party in the Scottish Parliament in April 2001. At that time he repaid the money to Westminster, but remained under pressure to resign, mainly from the Scottish National Party who claimed the issue questioned his integrity fatally.

McLeish fought against these calls for him to go, claiming all along that the issue was "a muddle, not a fiddle", but eventually succumbed to the pressure to resign on November 8. He was replaced by Jack McConnell.

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