Margaret Ferrier: Covid train trip MP loses appeal over Commons ban

Margaret Ferrier appealed against the proposed ban

MP Margaret Ferrier has lost her appeal against a proposed 30-day ban from the House of Commons for breaching Covid rules.

The Rutherglen and Hamilton West MP spoke in parliament while awaiting the results of a Covid test in September 2020.

She then took a train home to Glasgow after learning she had tested positive.

Ferrier was elected as an SNP MP but lost the whip following her actions and now sits as an independent.

The suspension is expected to lead to a by-election in her constituency.

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The Commons' standards committee recommended in March that Ms Ferrier should be suspended.

On Monday, the independent expert panel upheld the original judgement.

The proposed ban is now expected to be endorsed by MPs, although no date has yet been set for this to take place.

Under Commons rules, if an MP is excluded for 10 days or more a so-called ''recall petition'' can take place.

If it signed by more than 10% of eligible voters in the constituency, the MP is removed from their seat and a by-election called.

Margaret Ferrier campaigns with the then SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon ahead of the 2019 general election

Scottish Labour deputy leader Jackie Baillie said: "With this news, the by-election that the people of Rutherglen and Hamilton West need has moved one step closer.

"It is simply disgraceful that this community has been left without proper representation due to the actions of Margaret Ferrier."

Michael Shanks, a teacher, has been chosen as Scottish Labour's candidate for a by-election.

Scottish Conservatives MSP Graham Simpson said Ferrier should resign.

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

"Those in her constituency who were making great sacrifices during Covid will understandably be pleased she has lost this appeal against her punishment and will be looking forward to delivering their verdict at the ballot box."

Scottish Liberal Democrat deputy leader Wendy Chamberlain MP said Ferrier had acted with "real recklessness".

She added: "Rutherglen and Hamilton West deserve fresh representation and a chance to show the nationalists that they are fed up of being neglected."

The SNP said it had called for a by-election since Ferrier's Covid rule breach first came to light.

A party spokesperson added: "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 likely by-election in Rutherglen and Hamilton West will be one of the most keenly watched in Scotland for a generation.

It will be a key test for both Labour and the SNP.

The seat is one of Labour's top targets in Scotland. In 2019 Margaret Ferrier, as the SNP candidate, won the seat back from Labour with a majority of just over 5,000.

If Labour fails to win any by-election - amid both local controversy about Ms Ferrier and the current national difficulties facing the SNP - it would derail the party's hopes of a recovery in Scotland.

If it cannot regain the kind of constituency where people once joked that Labour votes were weighed rather than counted, then it would seem that talk of a Labour recovery in Scotland is overblown.

Similarly, if the SNP were to hold on - however narrowly - it would be presented as an endorsement of the new first minister, Humza Yousaf.

Both Labour and the SNP have been preparing for the possibility of a by-election for several weeks and have been canvassing.

A by-election is still not inevitable - the Commons needs to back Ms Ferrier's suspension and then a sufficient number of signatures will need to be gathered in the constituency.

But the result of that by-election, if and when it is held, could well have repercussions across Scottish politics.

The MP was sentenced to 270 hours community service last year at Glasgow Sheriff Court after pleading guilty to a charge of culpable and reckless conduct.

Ferrier was one of the MPs who called on the then prime minister Boris Johnson's adviser Dominic Cummings to resign in the wake of the controversy over his visit to the North East of England during lockdown.

At the time, she said his actions had "undermined the sacrifices that we have all been making in lockdown to protect each other from coronavirus" and described his position as "untenable".

But it subsequently emerged that Ferrier had travelled from Glasgow to London with Covid symptoms, and then returned home by train after testing positive.

Scotland's then first minister Nicola Sturgeon was quick to condemn her actions as "dangerous and indefensible".

Ms Sturgeon, who stood down in February, later called "with a heavy heart" for Ferrier to resign as an MP.