SCOTTISH ministers have been urged to suspend Prestwick Airport’s “relationship with the US military” while the US Congress investigates a possible conflict of interest involving Donald Trump’s luxury golf course.
Scottish Greens co-leader Patrick Harvie made the call in Holyrood yesterday as the Scottish Government came under pressure to reveal how much money the publicly owned airport has received from the American air force in recent years.
Last week it was revealed that a
seven-member aircrew of a US Air Force cargo plane had been put up overnight at Trump’s Turnberry
Resort. The stay was organised by staff at the Ayrshire airport.
Questions are now being asked in Washington about the nature of the relationship between the president’s business interests and the airport, bought by the Scottish Government for £1 in 2013.
In 2014, before he became president, Trump entered into a partnership with the airport, promising to increase air traffic and boost tourism in the area.
The following year, when Trump announced his bid for the pres-
idency, the Pentagon increased its use of Prestwick.
The number of US Air Force stops rose from 95 in 2015 to 180 in 2017 to 257 last year and 259 so far this year. There have been 220 overnight stays this year alone.
Since October 2017, records show 917 payments for expenses including fuel at the airport worth a total of $17.2 million.
Documents first uncovered by
The Scotsman newspaper through Freedom of Information laws show that as part of the Trump organisation’s partnership with Prestwick, the airport agreed to add Trump Turnberry to a list of hotels that the airport would routinely send
aircrews to.
On Monday, the President said he was not involved in any decision to put up US Air Force flight crew at Trump Turnberry.
“NOTHING TO DO WITH ME,” he tweeted.
Yesterday, Scotland’s Transport Minister, Michael Matheson, told MSPs there was no commercial relationship Prestwick Airport and the Trump Turnberry resort.
He said: “Prestwick, like all other airports providing fixed-base operations, arranges overnight accommodation for air crew when asked to
do so.
“It uses a list of 13 hotels, some of which pay Prestwick commission. Turnberry is generally only booked if other hotels are unavailable or if customers specifically request it. There is no commercial relationship between Prestwick and Turnberry.”
Harvie asked the minister if was “not now clear that we also risk having Scotland’s good international name dragged into a corruption allegation against a far-right
US President?”.
He added: “We cannot afford
that reputational risk. Should we not now at least suspend the relationship with the US military until
the congressional investigation
has concluded?”
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