Top SNP MP goes awol from his key role in Commons

A LEADING Nationalist MP faces calls to stand down as chairman of a key Brexit Commons committee – unless he improves his ‘timekeeping’.

Angus MacNeil has missed three out of seven Tuesday morning public inquiry sessions of the International Trade Committee. He is also accused of failing to attend one private meeting.

Allies of Mr MacNeil have pointed out he faces a 500-mile commute from his Western Isles constituency to Westminster, starting with a plane taking off from a beach on Barra, which can often be affected by the weather.

But critics on the committee have privately warned if his attendance does not improve he will face calls to stand down. One said: ‘If he can’t get down to Westminster for mornings, he has to consider whether he is the right person to chair a select committee.

‘He may have a great distance to travel but committee chairmen have to attend their own committees. There’s a lot of unhappiness about this on the committee.’

A Scottish Tory spokesman said: ‘There’s no excuse for Angus MacNeil to have missed this many meetings.’

But Mr MacNeil insisted that any suggestion he was not taking his job seriously was ‘nonsense’.