THE SNP has criticised the Scottish Tory leader for keeping his “highly paid hobby” as an assistant referee while his party plans to cut support for the poorest in society.

Latest figures from the MP’s register of financial interests show Douglas Ross was paid more than £1000 at each of three European games he officiated last year.

This means in 90 minutes he earned more than the total yearly amount of Universal Credit uplift, which was introduced during the pandemic and is due to come to an end in April.

Last week a cross-party group of MPs called for UK ministers to extend the £20 a week uplift for at least another year, warning a failure to do so will risk poverty levels not seen since the Thatcher era.

Overall Ross received around £5100 in October and November last year for being an assistant referee or standby official at nine matches.

The payments include £1356.25 for Shakhtar Donesk v Benfica, £1044.13 for B36 v Levadia and £1035.32 for Luxembourg v Cyprus.

A payment of £445 was donated to charity after he was criticised for skipping a VJ Day memorial to officiate at a Kilmarnock v St Johnstone match.

In December it also emerged Ross missed a key Covid-19 lockdown meeting because he was working as an assistant referee in a Rangers v Motherwell game.

Former party leader Ruth Davidson took his place, with the Tories saying he had only been alerted to the meeting at half-time.

SNP MSP Stewart Stevenson said: “While Boris Johnson is gearing up to slash social security payments by £1000 in the middle of a pandemic, Douglas Ross has grabbed more than this for just 90 minutes’ work.

“How Douglas Ross will try to justify allowing his Tory bosses to drastically cut support for the poorest in society while he pockets this much cash from officiating football is anyone’s guess.”

He added: “Voters haven’t forgotten that he also chose to skip an important Remembrance service last year to pocket £445 – before he was publicly embarrassed into donating the fee to a worthy charity.

 “If Douglas Ross was remotely serious about his responsibilities as an elected representative he would ditch his highly paid hobby without further delay, the fact that he isn’t doing so speaks volumes about him and his party.”

In response the Scottish Tories attacked SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford for his role as chair with Golden Charter Trust – which he is stepping down from in March.

A spokesperson for the party said: “This is incredibly rich from the SNP, when Ian Blackford, the self-proclaimed ‘simple crofter’, earns over £3000 per month from his second job. The SNP should look to get their own house in order rather than being blatant hypocrites.”