Pitfalls in law to oust errant politicians

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widespread desire into something tangible. He will bring forward a private member’s bill which would allow voters – once an agreed threshold of support is reached – to force a by-election in their constituency. This would mirror a procedure introduced at Westminster in 2015.

There is already cross-party support for Mr Rennie’s plan; it looks inevitable that legislation will made its way into the statute books. What form that legislation might take is not yet clear.

This is clearly an area which demands the attention of politicians but the way ahead is littered with pitfalls. A mechanism which would force by-elections by petition would be open to abuse. We should be very wary of inadvertently creating an easy way to take down democratically-elected members of parliament. There is the question, too, of what degree of inappropriate behaviour should be considered enough for a recall mechanism to kick in.

We continue to hope Mr Mcdonald will do the right thing and step down, but, if he does not, we’re not sure the answer lies in legislation that might make all elected members vulnerable to partisan campaigns.