‘I’m victim of sustained personal attacks’
CONTROVERSIAL MP Michelle Thomson is standing down from Westminster after the SNP refused to let her represent the party at the General Election.
The SNP’s executive committee yesterday ruled that Miss Thomson, elected as an Nationalist MP in 2015 before resigning the whip amid a police investigation into property deals, would not be allowed back into the party.
Miss Thomson last night ruled out standing as an independent candidate in her Edinburgh West seat and claimed she had been the victim of “sustained personal attacks” in the last two years.
Turning her ire on the SNP, she called on the party to hire outside experts to improve the way it delivers “natural justice” for members.
SNP bosses also decided that Glasgow East MP Natalie McGarry, who is facing fraud allegations, was also not eligible for re-selection as a party candidate.
Miss McGarry said the move was “no surprise” but refused to make a statement on whether she will now stand as an independent.
Alex Cole-Hamilton, Edinburgh Western MSP and co-ordinator of the Lib Dem election campaign, said: “Michelle Thomson’s departure draws this sorry saga to a close. Our constituency has been without proper representation at Westminster for the last two years and people’s faith in politics and politicians has been severely damaged as a result.”
Miss Thomson resigned the SNP whip in 2015 when a police investigation into allegations of mortgage fraud was launched. The investigation was into property deals involving Christopher Hales, a solicitor who was struck off for professional misconduct in May 2014 in connection with 13 transactions in 2010 and 2011.
Miss Thomson was named in a police report about the deals submitted to the Crown Office last year but has not been charged and denies any wrongdoing. In September last year, the SNP MPs at Westminster backed calls to reinstate her to the party and Miss Thomson revealed that SNP members had spent the last few days lobbying for her to be let back in.
She said: “Since I was elected two years ago I have been subjected to sustained personal attacks, starting with the
malicious addition of an old email address to the dating website ‘Ashley Madison’. At the time I escalated it to Police Scotland and I thank them for their investigation.
“Since September 2015 there have been reports concerning a solicitor I used some seven years ago.
“I’ve always made it clear that I have done nothing wrong and it’s a matter of public record that it was the solicitor who was under investigation and not myself.
“I must note that, even in political parties the concept of natural justice must apply, as must the need for defined processes that are applied fairly, rigorously and transparently.”
Miss McGarry was charged by the police last year over allegations of fraud relating to potential missing funds from the group Women For Independence, which was set up in the run-up to the 2014 independence referendum.
She also resigned the SNP whip in 2015, and has insisted there has been no wrongdoing on her part.
Writing on her Twitter page, Natalie McGarry said the decision “was of no surprise to me. I’ll be making no statement. My focus remains with my constituents.”
The SNP’s current 54 MPs have been reselected as the party’s candidates in the general election. The party will choose candidates for the remaining five Scottish constituencies by the end of this week.