A GLASGOW MSP has used a budget hotel and special offer deals to keep his expenses down.

John Mason has been booking a £25 a night room in Edinburgh while in the capital for the Scottish Parliament.

The latest expenses show Mr Mason to have booked three nights at £25 a night.

While some MSPs are charging almost £120 per night for their hotel stays, the most the frugal Shettleston SNP MSP claimed was £40 a night.

He said while some expenses are out with his control, where he can get a good deal for the tax payer he would.

He was using a hotel called the Cairn Hotel in the east of Edinburgh who often gave him special deals as a regular customer.

He said: “I felt I should stay in a cheaper hotel if I can get one.

“A lot of my constituents don’t have much money and if I can save money I will.”

His total hotel bill for the year came to £1715 for 47 nights working out at an average of £36.48.

He has since switched to another hotel after prices went up following a refurbishment.

Glasgow MSPs racked up a total bill of more than a quarter of a million pounds in the last year, 2015/16, according to figures released by the Scottish Parliament.

The bills ranged from Tory leader Ruth Davidson with £11,464 to SNP MSP James Dornan at £24,418.

The claims cover a range of expenses, mostly rent for constituency offices, travel and hotel costs.

Mr Mason spend more than most on milk and his receipts show a penchant for shopping around.

The records show he regularly claimed for small amounts of between 45p to 90p for milk on an almost daily basis under the heading business meeting expenses.

It shows the milk was purchased from 15 different stores including the big four supermarkets but also petrol station shops and Frankie’s Newsagent as well as budget supermarkets Lidl and Iceland and others like cut price stores Poundland, Price Crushers and B&M.

Other MSP expenses show different patterns of behaviour among the city’s 15 MSPs.

Anne McTaggart who lost her seat in May claimed almost £400 on parking charges and more than £3000 on motor mileage.

Other MSPs who preferred to drive to Holyrood and in their constituencies were Labour’s Paul Martin and Hanzala Malik who had large mileage claims. This was countered by a lower hotel bill than many others with Mr Martin only claiming £340 for hotels.

Transport Minister Humza Yousaf claimed £100 for five Subway multi journey tickets.

Sandra White Kelvin SNP MSP claimed £16.54 for anti-graffiti spray after her constituency office was targeted by vandals.

She said it was name tags on her office and on the tenement next door which she had removed.