THE Health Secretary has issued a statement branding media reports that he tried to buy Oasis tickets while appearing at an event about Alzheimer's “total nonsense”.
Neil Gray had been the focus of reports on Sunday which claimed that he had admitted to being “half the world away” from a discussion he was chairing at the SNP conference about how Scotland could “lead the world” on brain health research.
Gray had been appearing alongside leading experts Professor Frank Gunn-Moore from the University of St Andrews, Professor Terry Quinn from the University of Glasgow, and Professor Craig Ritchie and Dr Alison Green from Scottish Brain Sciences.
Amid reports that he had been trying to buy Oasis tickets during the event, the SNP minister was attacked by Scottish Labour’s deputy leader Jackie Baillie, who said: “Our NHS deserves better than distracted ministers and Scotland deserves a government that will act to treat patients, staff and dignity with the respect they deserve.”
READ MORE: SNP have been 'consumed by process on independence', says John Swinney
However, Gray has now spoken out and claimed the entire story is “total nonsense”.
Issuing a statement on social media, the Health Secretary said: “Just to confirm this is total nonsense.
“In intros to a fringe session I was chairing another panellist jokingly referred to Oasis tickets. I said like so many I was in the queue, but felt Half the World Away from getting any. People laughed and we went into the serious business.”
He went on: “I wasn’t trying to buy tickets in the meeting. I was fully focused on chairing and contributing to what was an inspiring session on brain health research and how Scotland, by the experts’ own words, is leading the world.
“The contributions from the audience and the panel were in depth, insightful and inspiring. It was a pleasure being part of – with family experience of Alzheimer’s and dementia, it is too important an issue for me to do anything otherwise.”
Responding to a user who asked if he had managed to buy tickets to the Oasis reunion tour, which will feature three gigs in Edinburgh next summer, Gray said: “Nope.”
The SNP conference closed on Sunday, with First Minister John Swinney delivering a keynote speech in which he promised to make the SNP an “election winning organisation” again.
Speaking after the General Election in July saw the SNP return just nine MPs, he said: “We’ve reflected as a party and we are learning the lessons of that election.”
Swinney promised a “better future” for both his party and the country as he told activists gathered for the conference in Edinburgh they deserved to have “the most professional, modern, dynamic election-winning organisation”.
He went on to pledge: “That is what I am going to deliver so we win in 2026.”
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