Calls to suspend MP following Covid rule breach
Constituents of a disgraced MP “deserve better” after facing calls to be suspended from parliament by a standards committee.
Former SNP MP Margaret Ferrier, the Westminster representative for the Rutherglen and Hamilton West constituency, could be banned from the House of Commons for 30 days. This would mean she would likely contest a by-election.
Miss Ferrier pleaded guilty to breaching Covid-19 regulations in 2020 after delivering a speech in parliament while awaiting a test result for the virus. She then took a train to Glasgow after being told she had tested positive.
Labour’s Ian Murray, the Shadow Scottish Secretary, said: “Margaret Ferrier’s reckless actions put people at risk and rode roughshod over the rules everyone else followed.
“It is right that Parliament has thrown the book at her for this unacceptable behaviour.
“There are still serious questions for the SNP to answer on what they knew and what they did at the time.
“Ferrier should do the right thing and stand down as an MP.
“Even Nicola Sturgeon called for her to resign – now Humza Yousaf must do the same.
“If Margaret Ferrier doesn’t resign the people of Rutherglen and Hamilton West can exercise their right to boot her from office.
“Her constituents deserve better and that means a by-election.”
The parliamentary commissioner for standards began an investigation into her conduct on October 12 following Ms Ferrier’s self-referral.
He has now concluded that the MP breached the code of conduct “by placing her own personal interest of not wishing to self-isolate immediately or in London over the public interest of avoiding possible risk of harm to health and life for people she came into contact with once she had received a positive Covid-19 test result”.
He added that she had “caused significant damage to the reputation and integrity of the House of Commons as a whole, and of its members generally”.
She had the SNP whip removed and was sentenced to carry out 270 hours of community service.
Labour could look to secure the Rutherglen and Hamilton West constituency with Ms Ferrier now sitting in Westminster as an independent MP.
Her majority, which she secured for the SNP in the 2019 UK general election, sits at 5,230, with Labour coming second.
An early by-election would be an early blow to Humza Yousaf’s tenure as First Minister of Scotland.
A Labour win in the area would mean the party would secure only their second MP north of the border.
Hamilton West resident Craig Campbell, 50, said:
“This is something that should have been done when she first broke Covid rules.
“If she had any decency she would have resigned as an MP there and then.
“I was disgusted that she did this.
“I had been stupid enough to fall for the SNP promises and voted her in. Never again, I have voted Labour in every election since.”
