:00:01. > :00:11.Champion, saying she did not want any distraction from her important
:00:11. > :00:13.
:00:13. > :00:17.Tonight on Newsnight Scotland, in a development which could have
:00:17. > :00:20.profound implications for the future of the club, the
:00:20. > :00:27.administrators at Rangers are understood to believe that Great
:00:27. > :00:32.White may not be a secured creditor, and that the controversial deal to
:00:32. > :00:35.sell season tickets in advance could be unwound. We will be asking
:00:35. > :00:41.whether the whole affair could be heading for a prolonged battle in
:00:41. > :00:45.the courts. And, the black, black oil, would Scotland owning it make
:00:45. > :00:48.the slightest bit of difference? Good evening. The former Rangers
:00:48. > :00:53.chairman Alastair Johnston has already suggested Craig Whyte may
:00:54. > :00:57.have forfeited his status as a preferred creditor at the club, and
:00:57. > :01:04.that the money he is said to be owed should in fact be written off.
:01:04. > :01:08.Tonight we have learned that the administrators are also querying
:01:08. > :01:18.whether Craig Whyte is a secured creditor, in other words, whether
:01:18. > :01:19.
:01:19. > :01:23.he has any claim over that -- over the assets. Our investigations
:01:23. > :01:29.correspondent Mark Daly reports. The first two casualties of the
:01:29. > :01:36.administration of one of Scotland's oldest institutions. This afternoon,
:01:36. > :01:40.Rangers' chief operations officer and director of football were both
:01:40. > :01:44.made redundant. Both had been hired by the man in the middle, owner
:01:44. > :01:48.Craig Whyte, against whom Smith aimed a withering parting shot.
:01:48. > :01:53.Just when things looked like they could not get any worse, they got
:01:53. > :01:57.worse. Strathclyde Police confirmed it had received a dossier from the
:01:57. > :02:00.administered, -- from the administrator, and would be
:02:00. > :02:06.preparing a report for the procurer of the school to decide whether a
:02:06. > :02:12.crime had occurred. The number of different organisations
:02:12. > :02:15.investigating the club now numbers five. -- the Procurator Fiscal.
:02:15. > :02:21.Chief among those, the administrator, and we understand
:02:21. > :02:23.they have so far found nothing to back up the claim of Craig Whyte
:02:23. > :02:27.that he injected �33 million of his own money into the football club.
:02:27. > :02:32.In fact, the administrator has been unable to locate a single piece of
:02:32. > :02:39.evidence that he put any of his own money into the club, other than the
:02:39. > :02:43.nominal �1 he paid for its purchase. Last night, former Rangers chairman
:02:43. > :02:48.Alastair Johnston claimed Craig Whyte may have gone back on the
:02:48. > :02:52.promises he made in his purchase agreement, which could leave his
:02:52. > :02:56.secured creditor status null and void. Additionally, the BBC
:02:56. > :03:02.understands the administrators are pursuing a second Avenue, involving
:03:02. > :03:06.financial transactions, which might also undermine Craig Whyte's
:03:06. > :03:12.position, and release back into the club the assets upon which his
:03:12. > :03:15.credit is secured. Mr Whyte went all the way to the Court of Session
:03:15. > :03:19.to make sure his preferred choice of administrator was installed.
:03:19. > :03:26.Indeed, the administrators have been involved with Mr Whyte since
:03:26. > :03:31.before the takeover. But now it seems all bets are off, and the
:03:31. > :03:35.season ticket matter could be next in line. It has emerged a London
:03:35. > :03:38.finance firm, which bought at least three years' worth of future TVs
:03:38. > :03:44.and ticket sales, apparently has no security over the assets of the
:03:44. > :03:48.club. -- of future season-ticket sales. We can reveal that as far
:03:48. > :03:54.back as last year, they were exploring how secure this
:03:54. > :03:58.arrangement might have been. Mr Whyte says he has secured the
:03:58. > :04:02.ticketing scheme personally. Behind the scenes, the administrators are
:04:02. > :04:05.confident they can get the company into a voluntary arrangement,
:04:06. > :04:10.meaning that the principle creditors would get a percentage of
:04:10. > :04:13.what they Road, without the club going into liquidation. I am told
:04:13. > :04:19.this is contingent on Craig Whyte no longer being involved at Ibrox.
:04:19. > :04:23.The gravity of the situation at Ibrox did not escape First Minister
:04:23. > :04:27.Alex Salmond at Parliament today. very much hope that a way forward
:04:27. > :04:31.can be found which allows Rangers to meet its obligations to the
:04:32. > :04:37.taxpayer, to continue in business and to save jobs. However, it
:04:37. > :04:43.should be said that given the revelations of the last few days,
:04:43. > :04:48.the task facing the administrator is a very, very difficult one.
:04:48. > :04:53.there's more. BBC Scotland can reveal that the HMRC debt of around
:04:53. > :04:58.�9 million, which kept the club into administration, will soon be
:04:58. > :05:07.nudging �15 million. In a statement this week, Great White denied he
:05:07. > :05:14.had gone back on his tax liabilities, adding... -- Craig
:05:14. > :05:19.Whyte. The BBC has obtained evidence which suggests that
:05:19. > :05:26.statement is not true. I have seen HMRC documents which indicate that
:05:26. > :05:30.it took the more than �4 million which it froze last year from
:05:30. > :05:36.Rangers finances in order to cover this, and used it to pay the
:05:36. > :05:44.outstanding VAT which was due on the �24 million that Rangers
:05:44. > :05:49.received from the London finance firm. That means that despite the
:05:49. > :05:52.claims of Mr Whyte, the re-tax bill has nothing to do with the �9
:05:52. > :05:57.million figure, and is still unsettled. We understand the
:05:57. > :06:01.administrator is to withdraw the appeal against it, so it can be
:06:01. > :06:05.added to the �9 million. And with the tax bill rising by more than �1
:06:06. > :06:09.million a month, by the end of February, the full amount owed will
:06:09. > :06:17.be nudging �50 million, which of course does not take into account
:06:17. > :06:21.the potential �14 million -- �49 million big tax bill. Tonight,
:06:21. > :06:31.Craig Whyte rejected the BBC's claims that the debts would climb
:06:31. > :06:39.
:06:39. > :06:42.But with sections of the support turning against him, his battles
:06:42. > :06:47.with the taxman, and a series of investigations into his running of
:06:47. > :06:52.the club, is he really serious about taking his place in the Ibrox
:06:52. > :06:56.directors' box ever again? Well, our business and economy editor
:06:56. > :06:59.Douglas Fraser joins me now. Also with me is the journalist Tom
:06:59. > :07:03.English, who writes for the Scotsman and the Scotland on Sunday.
:07:03. > :07:08.This gets more and more complex, but what are the implications of
:07:09. > :07:13.all of these questions about whether or not Craig Whyte is a
:07:13. > :07:22.secured creditor? You have to go back to last May, when he took over
:07:22. > :07:28.a bank loan. When the banks lane two many -- when the banks lend you
:07:28. > :07:33.money, if you cannot pay, they get the property. That is a secured
:07:33. > :07:38.creditor. That was nailed down in the terms of the bank loan. We were
:07:38. > :07:42.told at the time that it was guaranteed by his own money, we now
:07:42. > :07:46.know rather differently. But that status would give him the position
:07:47. > :07:51.of being the first in line for any liquidation of assets, ahead of
:07:51. > :07:55.everybody else, including the tax authorities. This was crucial at
:07:55. > :08:01.the talks last week about possible liquidation, that Craig Whyte might
:08:01. > :08:05.be able to take over the assets and set up a new company. A new company
:08:05. > :08:09.could take on the assets, if they were liquidated by the
:08:09. > :08:14.administrators, wipe out the debt and carry on as if the club had
:08:14. > :08:20.hardly changed. But not if there is a problem with this status.
:08:20. > :08:24.Somebody else could do it, presumably? If they're liquidated,
:08:24. > :08:30.if the administrator is in a position to move them on, yes. But
:08:30. > :08:34.there is this lock, because we are not clear if it is in fact secured
:08:35. > :08:39.status for Craig Whyte. Also, we have got this idea with the company
:08:39. > :08:44.from London, and whether that deal could be unwound. Yes, this was the
:08:44. > :08:48.deal, �24 million in return for at least some of the season ticket
:08:48. > :08:54.sales over the next three seasons. We were previously told it was four
:08:54. > :08:58.seasons. What the company has said in the past few days is that it is
:08:58. > :09:02.not a secured creditor, it owns these tickets. That is a rather
:09:02. > :09:06.troubling concept, because these tickets have not been printed yet,
:09:06. > :09:10.they do not exist. We do not know what matches will be played over
:09:10. > :09:15.the next three seasons. And indeed, if you turn up with one of their
:09:15. > :09:19.tickets at the turnstiles at Ibrox, do we know which company is going
:09:19. > :09:23.to be running at the club at Ibrox, and will they recognise these
:09:23. > :09:27.tickets? So, it is not clear that they do in fact have ownership of
:09:27. > :09:31.these tickets. It may come as a rather unpleasant surprise to them
:09:31. > :09:34.to see what is being said by the administrators. To my knowledge,
:09:34. > :09:40.nobody has suggested the company has done anything wrong, these
:09:40. > :09:50.deals are not uncommon. More often, what they would do would be, to
:09:50. > :09:53.ease the cashflow for a football club, over the course of the year,
:09:53. > :10:00.with season-ticket sales coming out at one particular time, but it is
:10:00. > :10:04.normally just done over one year. It also sounds to me that this
:10:04. > :10:09.could end up in court, which would make it more difficult to get the
:10:09. > :10:15.club up and running again? There are at least two reasons to
:10:16. > :10:19.question whether Craig Whyte is in fact a secured creditor. One of
:10:19. > :10:24.them is that he has broken at least one, perhaps more of the conditions
:10:24. > :10:28.of the sale from last May, which, according to one of the clauses in
:10:29. > :10:32.the contract, automatically extinguishers his loan, so the �18
:10:32. > :10:36.million gets wiped out if that is the case. If the administrators
:10:36. > :10:42.agree with Alastair Johnston on that, clearly, Craig Whyte has a
:10:42. > :10:50.very keen interest in challenging it. That's the worry, isn't it, Tom
:10:50. > :10:54.English, if you're a fan, this could end up in a legal case, and I
:10:54. > :11:03.don't know whether you could even put the club into liquidation, or
:11:03. > :11:09.restart kick in some form. This is a farce worthy of Hollywood now.
:11:09. > :11:14.Tonight, at last, there is a tiny bit of hope for the Rangers fans.
:11:14. > :11:18.If the ticket issue can be unravelled, if Craig Whyte's role
:11:18. > :11:21.in the club can be unravelled as well, then at least they would get
:11:21. > :11:28.a little bit of hope for the future. Clearly, they what would have him
:11:28. > :11:32.now. HMRC one would have him, HMRC might cut a deal, they might cut
:11:32. > :11:42.Rangers' some slack with the big tax case, but only if Craig Whyte
:11:42. > :11:50.
:11:50. > :11:59.is off the scene. What do you make Gordon Smith for went in there with
:11:59. > :12:04.high hopes. He was very excited and the club he thought he was joining
:12:04. > :12:09.turned out to be very different. He was mainly in charge of player
:12:09. > :12:15.recruitment, transfer negotiations but he had the rug pulled from
:12:15. > :12:22.under his feet. Presumably these two must only be the start. The
:12:22. > :12:26.other question here is how exactly are the administrators going to
:12:26. > :12:35.keep this club playing football matches on a week-by-week basis if
:12:35. > :12:39.there is no money? All the pressure is on Haiti M R C putting on Craig
:12:39. > :12:44.Whyte. My dealings with Craig Whyte would leave me to believe that
:12:44. > :12:54.there is no way he will walk away quietly. He is not that type of
:12:54. > :12:57.
:12:57. > :13:04.character. Briefly, Dacruz, there was the view... There was a
:13:04. > :13:09.possibility be could get a pre- packed deal. That certainly is of
:13:09. > :13:19.the table. This looks like it could get very protracted and could get
:13:19. > :13:25.into the courts. Do you agree? This could drag on for a long time.
:13:25. > :13:30.This is an epic saga. Thank you both.
:13:30. > :13:35.Western governments proved in the lead-up to the financial crass but
:13:35. > :13:37.you can spend money you don't have but can you save money you don't
:13:37. > :13:43.have. Centre for Public Policy for Regions suggests that Alex
:13:43. > :13:47.Salmond's plans for an all fund are flawed because there is no spare
:13:47. > :13:57.billion in the Budget to say it. Nationalist disputes the figures
:13:57. > :14:01.
:14:01. > :14:05.claiming there is a survey last for It is Scotland's oil - while not
:14:05. > :14:09.quite. It would be if Scotland were independent and why the it will
:14:09. > :14:13.continue to produce a steady flow of the black stuff it is
:14:13. > :14:17.diminishing. As continued investment and sophisticated
:14:17. > :14:23.extraction techniques and prices will go up as well as down but it
:14:23. > :14:28.will never allow the titillation of tax receipts to rival Norway's all
:14:28. > :14:33.funds which is a memorial to have Britain has used its North Sea wind
:14:33. > :14:37.for. The issue came up at first Minister's Questions. If he is
:14:37. > :14:47.prepared to be so slippery on this issue, how can anyone have any
:14:47. > :14:47.
:14:47. > :14:52.faith on anything he says? She will find that back in the 1960s a UK
:14:52. > :14:57.council decided to create another country, it was called the offshore
:14:57. > :15:04.continental shelf and it was a device so the oil and gas industry
:15:04. > :15:07.could be extracted from Scotland. We know at that time successive
:15:07. > :15:13.governments were being told that an independent Scotland would be
:15:13. > :15:20.richer than Switzerland. Politicians would be telling us we
:15:20. > :15:27.would be Porter -- poorer than Bangladesh. Today's report Tangiers
:15:27. > :15:32.the idea that an oil find could be found with just a billion pounds.
:15:32. > :15:38.billion pounds could be put away every year. Can we afford it? On
:15:38. > :15:47.the current numbers that the gunman and produces -- government produces,
:15:47. > :15:54.it is difficult to see if �1 billion is available. It applies
:15:54. > :16:00.that �1 million will come from a surplus. Yes, we have had in the
:16:00. > :16:07.past a current surplus. If we add in capital spending we have had a
:16:07. > :16:14.deficit but we have only had a surplus three out of five years and
:16:14. > :16:18.it requires additional revenues to maintain any current surplus.
:16:18. > :16:22.isn't all that predicated on the current budget which is a block
:16:22. > :16:26.grant from London and passionless would argue that if you are
:16:26. > :16:30.independent we would have a more dynamic economy and for quake?
:16:30. > :16:37.would be incumbent upon any government where they think that
:16:37. > :16:44.growth would come from. How they generate additional taxes. If �1
:16:44. > :16:49.billion had been put away it as of 2015, we are currently working of
:16:49. > :16:53.the expenditure levels and the current expenditure of revenues. If
:16:53. > :16:59.we expect the surplus in the future we need to indicate how far that
:16:59. > :17:04.will be generated, how quickly and then the question is is a fund the
:17:04. > :17:13.best way of using that surplus? a Mr Salmon misleading the public?
:17:13. > :17:18.His statement about clearly indicated that an oil fund would be
:17:18. > :17:22.developed as and when fiscal conditions permitted, so I do not
:17:22. > :17:28.think he is being misleading but I do think that if we are doing it
:17:28. > :17:33.tomorrow, fiscal conditions would not be permitting �1 billion to be
:17:33. > :17:39.put away. What do you say to nationalists who accuse you of
:17:39. > :17:47.being pro-Labour? We are independent of all parties. All
:17:47. > :17:53.parties have quoted us, or use our work when it suits. They can choose
:17:53. > :18:00.to accuse Arthur of bias. We are independent of any party. -- accuse
:18:00. > :18:05.us of bias. Perhaps the real point is not economic battle. Over 40
:18:05. > :18:08.years, British governments put the oil windfall into a revenue account
:18:08. > :18:12.and wrote cheques for current spending including mass
:18:12. > :18:20.unemployment. No oil money has never been invested in either
:18:20. > :18:23.infrastructure or in the future, for example in our pensions. Our
:18:23. > :18:28.political strategists would point out the SNP is trying to present a
:18:28. > :18:32.contrast between the short-term of London and their own careful
:18:32. > :18:36.husbanding of a national resource. Posing the question, who put
:18:36. > :18:42.Scotland first? There have been further
:18:42. > :18:46.developments this evening in the Eric Joyce story. Ian Watson joins
:18:47. > :18:53.me now. What is happening? There have been further developments. It
:18:53. > :18:58.has been well reported but the allegations that Eric Joyce head-
:18:58. > :19:02.butted a Conservative MP. I am also told that several Labour whips
:19:02. > :19:09.tried to restrain Mr Joyce last night in the House of Commons bar.
:19:09. > :19:13.One of them it was alleged was punched in the nose and there was
:19:13. > :19:18.blood. This evening there are now reports there has been a further
:19:18. > :19:23.incident involving Eric Joyce since he was taken into police custody.
:19:23. > :19:28.He remains in custody this evening, yet has not been charged with any
:19:28. > :19:33.offence. Speaking to Labour MPs this evening, some have been
:19:33. > :19:40.expressing concern about Eric Joyce's health and behaviour. He
:19:40. > :19:46.won by election to become an MP. Nine rolling out another by-
:19:46. > :19:51.election in his Falkirk constituency. Time for a look at
:19:51. > :19:56.tomorrow's front pages starting with the Scotsman. Rangers director
:19:56. > :20:02.shown the door. A picture of Gordon-Smith on the front and on
:20:02. > :20:09.the right, Scots MPs night in the cells after alleged head-butt on
:20:09. > :20:18.Tory. Eric Joyce pictured on the front page of the Herald. Then its
:20:18. > :20:23.main story, money-men cannot find white cash at Rangers. Tax debt �5
:20:24. > :20:31.million more than thought. Daily Telegraph has a story about doctors