ONE of the rising stars of the Scottish Tories is at the centre of a double-job row for planning to hang on to a lucrative academic post if he is elected.
Law professor Adam Tomkins intends to carry on working at the University of Glasgow to help offset the “pay cut” of dropping to an MSP’s salary of £60,000 a year.
The father-of-four said he had to consider the financial aspect of going to Holyrood, and it was wrong to expect everyone entering public life to abandon their current work completely.
Polls suggest Tomkins, 46, the John Millar Professor of Public law at the university since 2003, is all but certain to become the Conservative list MSP for Glasgow in May.
He insisted that, if elected, he would put “a shift and a half in” on behalf of the electorate.
However rival candidates said Tomkins was out of touch and voters would be unimpressed.
In 2009, the Scottish Tories criticised Alex Salmond for having more than one job as an MSP and MP.
David Mundell, now the Scottish Secretary, said at the time: “Mr Salmond has two jobs when many people in Scotland don't have a single job at all. That is quite wrong.”
Mundell last year appointed Tomkins as his unpaid adviser on the constitution.
Tomkins said: “I really don’t want to appear presumptuous. But if I am fortunate enough to be elected, then the plan is I will stay on at the University of Glasgow. Obviously not in anything like the capacity that I’m there at the moment. I’d be a full-time MSP. But the university have asked me to stay on. They have been very supportive.
“The details haven’t been worked out, but I think it will be an involvement with Policy Scotland, the policy arm of the university. No doubt some obligations still in the Law School. My PhD students want me to carry on supervising them to completion.
“If you elect someone in their mid-40s rather than mid-20s...you can’t expect them to give up everything they’ve built up in their careers.”
Asked if becoming an MSP meant a pay cut, he laughed: “Yeah, a little bit.” Asked it that was a consideration, he said: “Of course it is. I’ve got four young kids.”
Tomkins was formerly a vocal republican who in 2004 railed against "the weirdness of the present generation of Windsors" claimed the royals had a "long history of tax avoidance".
He wrote: "You're either a monarchist or you're a democrat. You can't be both." He described himself as being "of the left", though not in any party.
However he is now a darling of the Scottish Tories, and downplays his past views as "a bit extreme"
After representing the party on the Smith Commission on greater devolution, he was selected as the Tory candidate for Glasgow Anniesland and ranked top of the regional list.
The top list spot was previously held by leader Ruth Davidson, who has now moved to Edinburgh.
Last year former SNP education secretary Mike Russell became Professor of Scottish Culture & Governance at the University of Glasgow while still an MSP.
Russell, who is standing for re-election in Argyll & Bute, is paid around £20,000 for working 40 days a year.
Argyll & Bute has an electorate of 49,000; Glasgow region has one of around 512,000.
The most infamous double-jobbing MSP was Labour’s Gordon Jackson, who earned a fortune as a QC while representing Glasgow Govan from 1999 to 2007.
Scottish Green list candidate Patrick Harvie said: “Adam would be well advised to clear his diary if he's elected. The job of an MSP is absolutely a full time one, and I doubt Glaswegian voters will be forgiving if he pockets the generous salary while treating it as a sideline and carrying on with his current job."
RISE list candidate Cat Boyd added: “Adam Tomkins is obviously completely detached from the reality of life for most Glaswegians and, therefore, like all Tories, unfit to serve this city...Scotland needs political leaders who treat the Scottish Parliament with the respect it deserves, not as a professional afterthought."
A university spokesman said: “As a valued member of staff we have requested that Professor Tomkins continues in a part-time capacity within the department of law should he be elected.”
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