Margaret Ferrier's vote to remove her position means a recall petition can be started in her place in Rutherglen and West Hamilton if she refuse to resign. Photo: Jane
Barlow/Pennsylvania MPs voted to remove Margaret Ferrier from the House of Commons for 30 days due to a serious breach of Covid rules.
Ms Ferrier, who was elected as an SNP MP and now sits as an independent, traveled from Scotland to the House of Commons and back by train while suffering from the coronavirus in September 2020.
The vote to remove her from office means that a recall petition could be started at her seat in Rutherglen and West Hamilton if she refuses to resign.
More than 10 percent of the 81,000 registered voters in the electoral county will have to sign the petition. for by-elections, a threshold that is expected to be easily reached.
Ms Ferrier took the Labor seat in the 2019 general election with a majority of 5,230, but Sir Keir Starmer's party has high hopes for his return after a resurgence of support north of the border.
Labor has chosen Michael. Shanks, a teacher, as a by-election candidate and Sir Keir has already campaigned for the seat.
Mr Shanks said: “This is good news for those of us who live here, but it is a shame that Margaret Ferrier delayed this process for so long, as a result of which her constituents are not represented in Parliament.
“We have spoken to thousands of voters who are frustrated with the actions of Margaret Ferrier — 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 more than an MP who breaks the rules.”
“There should now be a by-election”
David Linden, SNP campaign coordinator, said: “There should now be a by-election, to to which the SNP has called since Ms. Ferrier's covid breach of the rules was first reported in 2020.”
“People in Rutherglen and Hamilton West are paying an unacceptable price for the pernicious pro-Brexit Tory and Labor policies as the cost of living skyrockets.”
Ms Ferrier has already been ordered to carry out 270 hours of unpaid work after of how she admitted she put other people's lives at risk by ignoring self-isolation orders.
A 62-year-old woman admitted she guiltyly and recklessly put the public at “risk of infection, sickness and death” at a hearing in sheriff's court Glasgow.
On Saturday, September 26, she took a Covid test. , 2020, after feeling “sore throat” but waiting for results, went to church on Sunday and read a reading to parishioners.
Ferrier “behaved dishonestly”
On Monday she went to London on a train with 183 passengers and spoke in the House of Commons before discovering she tested positive shortly after 8pm.
But Ms Ferrier decided to return by train to Glasgow the next 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 due to family illness.
The Commons Standards Committee recommended that she be suspended for 30 days after it found she had “acted dishonestly” by imposing misleading the SNP's chief whip.
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His report concluded: “Ms Ferrier's actions knowingly and recklessly exposed members of the public and members of parliament to the risk of contracting Covid-19 and demonstrated a disregard for current parliamentary and national guidelines.”
Ms Ferrier appealed the ban, but an independent panel upheld the committee's decision, saying: “She acted with egregious and deliberate dishonest intent. She acted with a high degree of recklessness towards the public, colleagues and employees of the House of Commons.
“She acted selfishly, putting her interests above the public. Therefore, there can be no lesser punishment for such behavior.”
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