SNP STUNT BACKFIRES
Nationalist MPs abandon Commons after leader is ejected – but they miss out on Brexit debate as opponents accuse them of ‘pathetic theatrics’
NATIONALIST MPs were yesterday accused of carrying out a ‘selfindulgent stunt’ after the party’s Westminster leader was kicked out of the House of Commons.
Ian Blackford was ordered from the chamber during Prime Minister’s Questions after refusing to sit down while arguing with the Speaker over an obscure procedural point.
The row sparked a walkout from the SNP benches, with all 34 MPs following Mr Blackford to the door, pointing and shouting at the Conservative benches as they left.
But the protest backfired as it meant the party’s bid for an emergency debate could not be heard – and the SNP’s own MPs missed the chance to quiz the Prime Minister. The
Nationalists last night claimed they were protesting about the lack of time to debate amendments to key Brexit legislation, but critics accused them of staging a ‘manufactured stunt’.
Scottish Conservative deputy leader Jackson Carlaw said: ‘Rather than represent their constituents by asking the Prime Minister serious questions, the SNP group prefer self-indulgent stunts as part of their own political agenda, purely to grab a few headlines. We’ve seen it all before: seek a grievance and then nurse it for all its worth. That is all the SNP has become.’
Yesterday’s walkout meant an SNP bid lodged earlier for an emergency debate on the EU Withdrawal Bill could not be heard, and that five Nationalists – including Pete Wishart and Chris Law – missed their chance to quiz Theresa May.
A Downing Street spokesman said: ‘That sort of stunt effectively means that the SNP members who were down on the order paper to ask the PM a question can’t represent their constituents. We have said on a number of occasions that the politics of independence can be divisive and I think that’s probably an illustration of that.’
Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson also hit out at the SNP over its bid to ‘stoke grievance’ after Speaker John Bercow said the party’s MPs would achieve more if they
‘Manufactured grievances’
behaved as others, rather than wasting time with ‘stunts’.
Miss Davidson said: ‘Questions tabled to the PM going unasked, a debate that was likely to be granted by the speaker shunned, all so the SNP could pull a manufactured stunt. Grievo max. Even the Speaker has called the SNP walkout a “stunt”. A threehour debate due to be granted on the very issue the SNP say they were walking out over... now can’t happen. Bravo.’
Labour MP Ian Murray said: ‘This is a time for grown-up politics, not manufactured grievances.’
Mr Blackford yesterday began his questioning of the Prime Minister by claiming Scotland had been plunged into a ‘constitutional crisis’ by the lack of debate on the EU Withdrawal Bill on Tuesday.
Only 19 minutes of chamber time were given to a key section dealing with the devolved nations – which the SNP has refused to accept, branding it a ‘power grab’.
Mrs May argued that Holyrood will actually receive more powers after Brexit. But Mr Blackford then tried to use an arcane procedure demanding that the ‘House sit in private’, a motion that requires a vote of MPs on whether to clear the public galleries.
Mr Bercow said that following PMQs a vote could be held on this, but the SNP Westminster leader demanded one that moment and refused to sit down.
The Speaker then ordered him to leave the chamber and banned him from the Commons for the rest of the day. All the Nationalist MPs followed him out and were later seen laughing and taking selfies as they spoke to TV cameras outside. Moments before the walkout, Mr Wishart had tweeted: ‘I’d be watching PMQs if I were you.’
On Twitter, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon wrote that she was ‘right behind’ her MPs, and later told the BBC she was ‘very proud’ of them.
Mr Blackford last night denied it had been a stunt, adding: ‘We have a responsibility to stand up for our constituents, to stand up for Scotland. We have not been allowed to raise our voices in Parliament.’
He said it was ‘undemocratic’ that Nationalist MPs had been unable to speak in Tuesday’s debate, describing it as ‘a slight to the Scottish parliament and to the people of Scotland’.
And he warned Mrs May that the SNP would use any means possible to take her on.
The threat appeared to have been taken on board by the Government last night, with the whips office warning Tory MPs of potential ‘procedural ambushes’.
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