Margaret Ferrier: Covid breach MP faces fresh calls to quit

An MP is facing renewed calls to quit after losing her appeal against a recommended 30-day ban from the Commons for breaching Covid rules.

A by-election will almost certainly be held in Margaret Ferrier's Rutherglen and Hamilton West constituency if MPs vote to impose the suspension.

She has been urged to resign now rather than wait to be recalled by her constituents.

Ferrier won the seat for the SNP with a majority of 5,230 in 2019.

She now sits an an independent MP after losing the SNP whip when it emerged she took a train from London to Glasgow at the height of the pandemic despite testing positive for Covid.

Ferrier has already been ordered to complete a 270-hour community payback order by a court after admitting culpably and recklessly exposing the public "to the risk of infection, illness and death" as a result of her behaviour.

She has previously said she "deeply regretted" her actions but has so far refused to resign as an MP.

No date has yet been set for MPs to vote on whether the recommended 30-day ban be imposed on Ferrier. They are expected to overwhelmingly back the suspension.

This would allow a recall petition to be started, with more than 10% of registered voters in the constituency needing to sign it for a by-election to be held.

Scottish Labour is confident of winning the seat, with polls suggesting that support for the SNP has fallen in recent months, and has already picked Michael Shanks as its candidate - albeit in controversial circumstances - in anticipation of a by-election.

Party leader Anas Sarwar was campaigning in the constituency on Monday.

He said he was confident that the threshold for removing Ferrier as an MP would be met and urged her to put her constituents first by resigning now.

Mr Sarwar said people in the constituency were "furious" that the issue had dragged on for so long.

He added: "Every step of the way, this individual is trying to keep her job rather than actually standing up for the community that needs proper support".

Mr Sarwar said Ferrier had "one final chance to do the right thing and resign" and give her constituents a fresh start.

He continued: "If she fails to do that, then I'm calling on both SNP and Tory MPs to vote for this sanction when it comes before them in the House of Commons and then allow the people of this constituency to participate in that recall petition."

Ms Ferrier's former colleagues in the SNP - including then-party leader Nicola Sturgeon - have consistently called for her to quit since her Covid breach came to light.

Speaking after she lost her appeal, an SNP spokesman said: "There must now be a by-election in Rutherglen and Hamilton West.

"The SNP is ready to take the fight to the Tories and pro-Brexit Labour Party at that by-election - and we will be putting the cost of living, NHS and independence at the heart of our campaign."

The party's social affairs spokesman at Westminster, David Linden, told the BBC's Good Morning Scotland programme that her position was "untenable" and that he was confident the SNP would win a by-election.

Mr Linden said: "Rightly voters in Rutherglen and Hamilton West are annoyed that they've got an MP who was supposed to be voting on Covid legislation which she has been found to have broken.

"They want a Member of Parliament who has credibility, who can stand up in Westminster and that's what they'll get with the SNP when the by election takes place."

He was also asked about a report in The Times about an "away day" meeting of SNP MPs, which said there was disquiet among the group due to a lack of strategy in the party since Humza Yousaf became leader.

Mr Linden said he did not recognise the description.

Scottish Conservative MSP Graham Simpson said Ferrier's actions were "reckless" and echoed calls for her to resign.

He added: "Instead, it looks like she will brazenly continue to take her MP salary until the bitter end."

The Commons' standards committee recommended in March that Ferrier should be suspended, with a independent expert panel upholding the original judgement on Monday after she appealed against it.

The panel concluded that she had acted with "blatant and deliberate dishonest intent" and a "high degree of recklessness to the public and to colleagues and staff at the House of Commons".

It added: "This is not one momentary error of judgment. It is a sequence of events amounting to a deliberate course of dishonest behaviour.

"She acted selfishly, putting her own interests above the public interest. There could therefore be no lesser sanction for this conduct."

Ferrier took a Covid test on Saturday 26 September 2020 because she had a "tickly throat". While awaiting the result she went to church on the Sunday and gave a reading to the congregation, and later spent more than two hours in a bar in Ayrshire.

She then travelled to London on a train that had 183 passengers on board on the Monday and spoke in the Commons later that day.

Shortly after leaving the chamber, she found out she had tested positive for the virus and took a train back to Glasgow the following day to avoid having to self-isolate in a London hotel room for two weeks.

She did not tell anyone about the positive test result until she was back in Glasgow.

Her appeal against the proposed 30-day suspension said it was too severe and that she was the victim of "double jeopardy" as she had already been punished by a criminal court for her offence.