MP Margaret Ferrier suspended from Commons for 30 days over Covid breaches
MPs have voted to suspend Margaret Ferrier from the Commons for 30 days over a major breach of Covid rules.
Ms Ferrier, who was elected as an SNP MP and now sits as an independent, travelled from Scotland to the Commons and back by train while suffering from coronavirus in September 2020.
The vote to suspend her means a recall petition can be started in her Rutherglen and West Hamilton seat if she refuses to resign.
More than 10 per cent of the 81,000 registered voters in the constituency will need to sign the petition for a by-election to be held, a threshold that is expected to be easily met.
Ms Ferrier took the seat from Labour in the 2019 general election with a 5,230 majority, but Sir Keir Starmer’s party has high hopes of winning it back following a resurgence in support north of the border.
Labour has selected Michael Shanks, a teacher, as its candidate to fight a by-election and Sir Keir has already campaigned in the seat.
Mr Shanks said: “This is welcome news for those of us who live here, but it is a disgrace that Margaret Ferrier has dragged this process out for so long, leaving her constituents unrepresented in parliament.
“We’ve spoken to thousands of voters who feel let down by Margaret Ferrier’s actions - people who made sacrifices during the pandemic and rightly expected their MP to do the same. The people of Rutherglen and Hamilton West deserve so much better than a rule-breaking MP.”
‘There must now be a by-election’
David Linden, the SNP’s by-election campaign coordinator, said: “There must now be a by-election, which the SNP has been calling for since Ms Ferrier’s covid rule-breach first came to light in 2020.
“People in Rutherglen and Hamilton West are paying an unacceptable price for the damaging policies of the Tories and pro-Brexit Labour Party, as the cost of living soars.”
Ms Ferrier has already been ordered to carry out 270 hours of unpaid work after she admitted putting the lives of others at risk by ignoring orders to self-isolate.
The 62-year-old admitted she had culpably and recklessly exposed the public “to the risk of infection, illness and death” at a hearing at Glasgow Sheriff Court.
She took a Covid test on Saturday Sept 26, 2020 after experiencing a “tickly throat”, but while awaiting her results she went to church on the Sunday and gave a reading to the congregation.
Ferrier ‘acted dishonestly’
On the Monday, she travelled to London on a train with 183 passengers and spoke in the Commons, before discovering shortly after 8pm that evening she had tested positive.
But Ms Ferrier decided to get a train back to Glasgow the following day, fearing she would have to self-isolate in a London hotel room for two weeks. She told SNP whips she had to return to Scotland because of family illness.
The Commons standards committee recommended she be suspended for 30 days after finding she “acted dishonestly” by misleading the SNP’s chief whip.
Its report concluded: “Ms Ferrier’s actions knowingly and recklessly exposed members of the public and those on the parliamentary estate to the risk of contracting Covid-19 and demonstrated a disregard for the parliamentary and national guidance in place.”
Ms Ferrier appealed against the ban but an independent panel upheld the committee’s ruling, saying: “She acted with blatant and deliberate dishonest intent. She acted with a high degree of recklessness to the public and to colleagues and staff at the House of Commons.
“She acted selfishly, putting her own interests above the public interest. There could therefore be no lesser sanction for this conduct.”