Her comments come after it was found out that Mr Gray was chauffeured to Hampden Park to watch games featuring the team he supports, Aberdeen.
A Cabinet colleague has since defended Neil Gray, saying he was ‘doing his job’ and he would not have been allowed a ministerial car had he not been.
The Health and Social Care Secretary was given VIP seats – as a guest of the Scottish Football Association – three times, once in his current role and two when he was wellbeing economy, fair work and energy secretary.
Those include the Aberdeen v Hibernian match for the semi-final of the League Cup and the final against Rangers last year, as well as the semi-final of the Scottish Cup against Celtic this year.
The health secretary’s predecessor, Michael Matheson, quit due to an expenses row. Mr Matheson had run up a £10,000 roaming charge on holiday after his sons streamed football matches on a Government iPad. The tab was initially billed to the public purse but was later repaid by the SNP politician after the story broke.
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Calling for the health secretary to make a statement to parliament, Ms Hamilton MSP said: “What is it with SNP health secretaries and claiming taxpayer funds to watch the football?
“The SNP’s shoddy excuses are making Neil Gray’s chauffeur scandal look a lot like the Michael Matheson affair.
“The thing that really bothers the public is the SNP’s secrecy and hypocrisy.
“Nationalist politicians are the first to cry foul but the last to accept they’ve done anything wrong.
“The SNP hammered Labour politicians for accepting donations for high-end clothes and all sorts of gifts, yet they don’t say much when it’s one of their own.
“Neil Gray must explain the full facts of what he’s done to the Scottish Parliament and let the public judge for themselves.
“People deserve transparency or they will lose even more trust in SNP politicians.
“The health secretary should be using taxpayers’ money to reduce NHS waiting lists, not cut the cost of following his football team.”
The acting Net Zero Secretary defended Neil Gray on the radio this morning, saying he was attending the cup ties “in line with his government duties”.
Speaking on Good Morning Scotland on Monday, the Net Zero Secretary said Mr Gray would not have been allowed to use the car if it was not for official reasons.
She told the BBC programme: “It’s my understanding that Neil Gray was doing his job as the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport.
“It seems to be that he has done visits in line with his government duties and in line with his responsibilities for sport.
“So he would use a ministerial car to get to somewhere where he was doing a ministerial event and that’s pretty standard.”
Questioned on why the three visits were to watch Aberdeen FC, the team Mr Gray supports, Ms Martin said: “That’s a question for him”.
“I obviously don’t know anyone’s football preferences,” she said.
“If he goes to see Aberdeen as part of a ministerial visit, then that’s obviously something that he has done and then aligned with the ministerial code.”
Ms Martin, who is in Baku, Azerbaijan, for the Cop29 climate conference, said it was the first time she had heard about issues being raised about ministerial car use.
She added: “The fact of the matter is you wouldn’t get a ministerial car unless there was a ministerial visit attached to that.
Other SNP politicians also reportedly used ministerial cars to attend sports games, including rural secretary Mairi Gougeon, community safety minister Siobhian Brown and employment minister Tom Arthur.
The Scottish Government has been contacted for comment.
The news comes as donation rows involving politicians across the UK continues.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer faced weeks of criticism in October after it was revealed he had been gifted more than £100,000 in freebies since becoming Labour leader. That included accepting almost 40 sets of free tickets to football matches and to major concerts.
SNP ministers were among those who condemned revelations of Westminster donations, involving senior Labour ministers.
