Get a vroom, you two!
Kissing on the campaign trail, SNP’s femme fatale and her motorbike-riding, bandana-wearing MP husband whose torrid affair rocked the party
HER tangled love life once put her at the centre of an SNP sex scandal that shocked Scottish politics.
But yesterday would-be councillor Serena Cowdy was happy to put on a very public display of affection with her MP husband.
Kissing and cuddling, Ms Cowdy and senior nationalist politician Stewart Hosie – both clad in leathers – arrived by motorbike at an independence rally in Arbroath, Angus.
Ms Cowdy, 42, wearing skinny grey jeans, a tight-fitting leather jacket and black biker boots, later stood chatting to fellow campaigners with her husband, 59, who wore black leather trousers, a leather jacket and blue bandana. The couple both sported the logo of the Yes Bikers motorcycle group.
A former actress and journalist, Ms Cowdy – who was born in Peterborough and educated at Oxford – sparked a scandal by having an affair with two married Nationalist MPs. Her relationship with Western Isles MP Angus MacNeil took place around the time of the 2014 independence referendum. The MP and his wife later divorced.
She also began a relationship with Mr Hosie, who was married to MSP Shona Robison, the SNP’s Social Justice Secretary and one of Nicola Sturgeon’s closest friends. After the affair become public knowledge, Ms Sturgeon was seen comforting Ms Robison in the chamber at Holyrood.
Ms Cowdy’s affairs stunned Westminster, with rumours circulating she had viewed the SNP as ‘the Mujahideen of British politics’ and the two SNP politicians had clashed over her. She later spent time as a wildlife campaigner before setting up a business painting deer antlers.
Now resident in Angus, she last month officially lodged her nomination to become SNP councillor for the ward of Arbroath West, Letham and Friockheim but declined yesterday to say how her election bid was going.
She said: ‘It’s not really about the campaign today, it’s about the marchers here and I wanted to come and listen to the speeches.’
Mr Hosie added: ‘Today, we want to just let the people who are doing the marching to speak about the marches.’
Several hundred campaigners took part in the march, led by an advance guard of bikers, including Mr Hosie and Ms Cowdy, before a rally on the seafront.
Speaking previously of her bid to be a councillor, Ms Cowdy, who once described herself as a ‘nut magnet’ because of the eccentric types she attracted, posted giggling emojis on social media after she returned from the election office with her papers, and stated: ‘No backing out now.’
In the aftermath of the revelations of their affair, Dundee MP Mr Hosie stood down as deputy leader at Westminster and is now shadow chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. Ms Cowdy moved to Arbroath in 2017 and they married the following year.