The Scottish National Party (SNP) will face a by-election test after MP Margaret Ferrier, who admitted breaching COVID-19 rules by travelling on a train between London and Scotland in September 2020 despite being told to self-isolate, was forced to step down.
A petition to recall Ms. Ferrier, 62, reached the required number of signatures, triggering a by-election in her Rutherglen and Hamilton West constituency.
Ms. Ferrier first won the seat for the SNP in 2015 but lost it two years later to Labour’s Gerard Killen, before regaining it in December 2019 with a majority of just over 5,000.
In June she was suspended from the House of Commons for 30 days, beginning the recall petition process.
A total of 11,896 voters have now signed Scotland’s first recall petition, unseating Ms. Ferrier, who had been sitting as an independent since 2020 after the SNP suspended her.
After her conviction in August last year the SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon called on her to resign.
Ms. Sturgeon’s successor, Humza Yousaf, who is Scotland’s first minister, said his party faced a “challenging” situation in Rutherglen and Hamilton West, but his party has “solid support.”
Only 2nd Successful Recall in UK
It is only the second time a British MP has been recalled.In May 2019 Fiona Onasanya, the Labour MP for Peterborough, was recalled after she was jailed for three months for perverting the course of justice. Labour’s Lisa Forbes won the ensuing by-election.
South Lanarkshire Council, which administered the recall petition, wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter: “Petition successful. Total electorate 81,123. Number of electors who validly signed the petition 11,896. Percentage of electors who validly signed the petition 14.66 percent. 37 returns were rejected.”
Despite being told to self-isolate because of COVID-19, she went to a leisure centre, a church, a number of shops, and a bar in Rutherglen and Glasgow on that day and the following day, before travelling by train to London on Sept. 28 and visiting the Houses of Parliament.
She did not tell NHS Test and Protect officials about her symptoms and that she was awaiting a test result when she entered Parliament and spoke in a debate on the COVID-19 response.
Ms. Ferrier learned later that day she had tested positive for the virus but she travelled back to Scotland on the train from London and then took a taxi from Glasgow station to her home in Cambuslang.
The speaker of the House of Commons, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, described her actions as “reckless,” and The Scotsman newspaper called her a hypocrite because she had earlier criticised Downing Street adviser Dominic Cummings after he was accused of breaching the restrictions by travelling to Barnard Castle in County Durham.
Her trial was delayed because an expert virologist was busy working on the monkeypox outbreak.
In October 2020 Ms. Ferrier wrote on X: “I apologise unreservedly for breaching COVID-19 restrictions by travelling this week when I shouldn’t have. There is no excuse for my actions.”
In June 2022 Natalie McGarry, a former SNP MP, was jailed for embezzling £25,000 from the party and the Women For Independence pressure group.
