Let me back in, suspended MP begs SNP chiefs
FORMER Nationalist MP Michelle Thomson has pleaded to be allowed to return to the party, it emerged last night. The Edinburgh West MP was suspended last year when a police probe was launched into her mortgage deals.
She has remained as an independent, sitting alongside and voting with the SNP politicians in Westminster, but frozen out from official group meetings.
Her plea came as claims emerged that Nationalist chiefs are planning to tighten their dis- ciplinary procedures for members – despite already having some of the strictest rules against dissent of any party.
A pro-SNP newspaper yesterday reported Mrs Thomson sent an email to the 54 Nationalist MPs earlier this month. It reportedly stated: ‘As you can imagine, it has been the loss of the SNP whip that has caused me the most distress.
‘I had no support to manage the media whirlwind and found myself alone and scared. I take my responsibilities to my constituency seriously and have carried on doing my best in a professional manner but I must admit there have been many days when I have felt very alone.’
It reportedly added: ‘I wrote to Nicola [Sturgeon] on 18/06/2016 to ask for a meeting but have not yet had a reply. I very much hope to be able to resume as an SNP MP in the near future and I thank you all again for your continued support.’
Mrs Thomson’s solicitor, Christopher Hayes, was struck off by a Scottish Solicitors’ discipline tribunal after acting for her company M&F Property Solutions in a series of deals which raised questions over possible mortgage fraud. The Law Society of Scotland first alerted the Crown Office and Prosecution Service about Hayes in December 2014, and it is understood that officials for the state prosecutor asked for a full report.
However, voters went to the polls in the May 2015 General Election unaware of the controversy, and Mrs Thomson was elected to represent Edinburgh West in the SNP landslide.
When the news of the probe broke in July 2015, Mrs Thomson quit the party whip at Westminster, triggering her suspension from the SNP.
Lib Dem MSP Alex Cole-Hamilton, who won the Edinburgh Western seat from the SNP in May said: ‘This is extraordinary. You would have thought her priority would be clearing her name or, God forbid, standing up for her constituents and doing her job – rather than begging SNP colleagues and the First Minister to let her back into the club.’
Mrs Thomson said: ‘This is an internal matter between myself and the SNP.’
An SNP spokesman said: ‘Michelle Thomson withdrew from SNP membership and that remains the position.’
Meanwhile, a motion for the SNP’s autumn conference will reportedly seek the ‘strengthening and clarifying [of] disciplinary procedures to ensure both the principles of natural justice are upheld and the values and standards of the party are respected by all members’.
‘I wrote to Nicola to seek a meeting’