Edinburgh councillor suspended by SNP over alleged incident

A former planning chief of Edinburgh Council has been suspended from the SNP following a complaint over an alleged physical incident at the party’s conference last year.

Lewis Ritchie is alleged to have hit another delegate during a fracas in a taxi at the SNP’S annual party conference in Glasgow in October. The SNP’S internal disciplinary committee is now considering a complaint and he has been suspended pending a hearing.

The Scotsman revealed in November that Ritchie, who was nominated for a top political award just weeks later, had stepped aside from his roles as planning convener and Leith Walk ward councillor – shortly after the party conference in October – due to “health reasons”, after telling SNP group party leader Adam Mcvey that he had taken on too much and found it was having a detrimental effect on his wellbeing.

The SNP said at the time that he would be allowed to return to his duties when he felt able to.

He had been due to return to work on 7 January, but it is understood his leave of absence was extended. Councillor Neil Gardiner has been named as the local authority’s new planning convener, although no matter what the outcome of the hearing, Mr Ritchie can remain a councillor, even if he is no longer a member of the SNP.

However, a statement issued by the party said he is under “administrative suspension”.

The news comes amid a spate of party-level problems relating to councillors across Scotland. Yesterday, another SNP councillor, Chris Mceleny – a former candidate for deputy leader of the SNP from Inverclyde – was forced to apologise after calling the leader of his local council a “d*ck” on Twitter.

Last summer, Scottish Tory leader leader Ruth Davidson reinstated two councillors in Stirling who had been suspended over offensive Twitter posts and nine Aberdeen councillors were in November suspended from the Scottish Labour party after they formed a Conservative coalition.

A spokesman for the SNP said about Mr Ritchie: “A complaint has been passed to the disciplinary committee and Cllr Ritchie is under administrative suspension until a hearing takes place.”

It is understood the complaint was not made by the person who was allegedly hit, but a third party who was not present at the time. A source told The Scotsman Mr Ritchie subsequently paid for the taxi and bought a drink for the other delegate to apologise for the incident.

Mr Ritchie was shortlisted – alongside Aberdeen City Council leader Jenny Laing and Susan Aitken, the first SNP leader of Glasgow City Council – for the Local Politician of the Year category at the Politician of the Year awards at Edinburgh’s Prestonfield hotel.