Love triangle MP quits his top SNP post …blaming high blood pressure
ONE of the MPs embroiled in a love triangle with a younger woman is to quit as the SNP’s deputy leader – blaming high blood pressure.
Stewart Hosie, 53, yesterday said he will stand down as number two to Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, who is best friends with his scorned wife.
Miss Sturgeon refused to back him publicly following revelations about his affair with Westminster journalist Serena Cowdy, 36, who also had a fling with another SNP MP.
He is believed to still be in a relationship with Miss Cowdy, who is said to want to marry him.
Mr Hosie, the MP for Dundee East, revealed in a letter to Miss Sturgeon yesterday that he will stand down at the SNP’s autumn conference.
He wrote: ‘As you know I have been admitted to hospital on three occa- sions in the past few years with very high blood pressure. In that regard, the stress of the intense scrutiny of my private life has been very difficult.’
The father-of-one, who had a ministroke in 2012, said he would continue as an MP, adding: ‘I intend to concentrate on my constituents, my responsibilities at Westminster and, most importantly, my health.’
Miss Sturgeon’s response was polite but curt, thanking him for his time in the role. She said the two election manifestos he had written for the party were achievements he ‘should be very proud of’.
Mr Hosie will continue as the SNP’s Treasury spokesman and deputy leader of the Westminster group of MPs, a position to which he was reappointed last week.
A source in Miss Cowdy’s circle said last night: ‘We were disgusted at the SNP wasting their time on affairs with Serena when they should be serving the constituents of Scotland.
‘Maybe this will open people’s eyes to what their MPs have been up to down in London. We have been toasting Hosie’s resignation – but Serena has suddenly gone very quiet.’
Mr Hosie had an awkward reunion with his wife, Scottish health minister Shona Robison, at their shared constituency office in Dundee last Friday.
The couple had announced their separation last week after the Mail started asking questions about Mr Hosie’s affair.
Miss Cowdy – described as a ‘femme fatale’ by a colleague – had bragged to friends about her nights of passion with Mr Hosie at his London flat, talking of his ‘white Marks and Spencer Yfronts’ and saying they had a firm future together.
One Commons insider said she had expressed regret at not marrying like her friends, and Miss Cowdy herself tweeted recently about her desire to have a wedding in a beautiful dress.
She had also admitted she ‘couldn’t keep her knickers on’ when around SNP MPs, who she described as the sexy ‘ Muja- hideen of British politics’. Miss Cowdy arrived at Parliament a couple of years ago and promptly began an affair with married SNP MP Angus MacNeil.
The father- of- three, whose marriage ended last year, charged taxpayers £6,250 for stays at London’s Park Plaza hotel, the location of his trysts with Miss Cowdy, in 2014-15.
Mr Hosie and Mr MacNeil, who is MP for the Western Isles, could face questions from sleaze watchdogs after being reported to both the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards and the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority.
Mr MacNeil, 45, is facing calls to quit as chairman of the energy select committee, which comes with a £15,025 boost on top of his MP’s salary of nearly £75,000.
A senior Labour source said last night: ‘Angus MacNeil must now ask himself whether he can continue in his highly paid position as chair of the House of Commons energy committee.
‘He has brought his party and Parliament into disrepute.’