A TORY MSP snubbed disabled people in Glasgow affected by Westminster welfare reforms to spend time contemplating Japanese cricket.

Alex Johnstone, Conservative MSP for North East Scotland, skipped the opportunity to hear the first hand experiences of those affected by the Coalition Government welfare reforms.

Instead he chose to prepare for a Member's Debate he was to lead, welcoming cricket teams from Japan to Scotland.

While the four SNP and two Labour members of Holyrood's Welfare Reform Committee heard harrowing tales of people going without meals and driven to the brink of suicide, Mr Johnstone stayed away.

Mr Johnstone, the only Tory on the committee, has been a critic of the opposition to the Government reforms and has repeatedly challenged the use of the phrase 'bedroom tax' to describe the benefit cut to people in social housing who are deemed to have a spare bedroom, stating it is not a tax.

In a debate in the Scottish Parliament he criticised Labour and the SNP for not coming up with alternatives and questioned research which said Scotland would lose £1.6billion of income as a result of the changes.

A spokesman for the Conservatives said: "As it was an away day and not conducted officially he decided he wouldn't be able to prepare for the debate and attend the meeting in Glasgow."

When told the other six committee member managed it, the spokesman added: "They didn't also have a Member's Debate the same day."

Mr Johnstone's debate motion, titled Welcome to the National Cricket Teams of Japan, begins: "That the Parliament extends a warm welcome to the national men and women's Japan cricket teams who will arrive in Scotland on April 30 to play in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Stirling before visiting the Parliament on May 4."