SNP CHIEF QUITS OVER KENNEDY HATE CAMPAIGN

Party official resigns over vile attacks on ex Lib Dem leader as Nationalist MP Ian Blackford is banned from today’s funeral

AN SNP official who hounded Charles Kennedy in the runup to his death has resigned, the Scottish Daily Mail can reveal. Brian Smith was working for SNP candidate and now MP Ian Blackford when he sent vile online messages to the former Lib Dem leader branding him ‘ a Quisling’ and ‘ a drunken slob’.

Mr Kennedy’s family and party colleagues were so upset by the abuse he suffered during and after the General Election campaign, that Mr Blackford has been banned from attending the politician’s funeral today.

We can also reveal that police were called in April when Mr Blackford turned up at Mr Kennedy’s campaign office in Fort William, Inverness-shire, with four of his supporters to l aunch a tirade against Lib Dem activists.

Last night, former Labour Energy Minister Brian Wilson, a friend of Mr Kennedy, said the late MP had confided in him about his despair at the cybernats.

Mr Wilson claimed Mr Blackford must have

been aware of the bile being spread on the internet.

Mr Blackford acknowledged he was a friend of Mr Smith, but claimed not to have known about his online abuse of Mr Kennedy, despite following him on Twitter.

There were also claims last night that Mr Blackford himself had mentioned Mr Kennedy’s alcoholism while campaigning, which he strongly denied.

Mr Wilson said: ‘The death of Charles Kennedy has provoked many reflections, none of them very optimistic.

‘The lessons to be learned should certainly involve the treatment meted out to him in the months prior to his death, for this is now integral to the nature of Scottish politics.’

Mr Smith, 56, bombarded the former Lib Dem leader with a barrage of insults that mocked his battle with alcoholism.

But the former policeman was forced to quit his job as convener of the SNP’s Skye and Lochalsh branch yesterday.

Despite their professional and personal relationships, the SNP politician failed to raise the alarm about Mr Smith’s hostile messages despite the abuse being orchestrated under his nose.

In a series of unsavoury comments, Mr Smith referred to Mr Kennedy as ‘ a drunken slob’ only moments after he lost the Ross, Skye and Lochaber seat he had held since 1983.

He also made a thinly-veiled reference to his alcoholism by sending a message suggesting that Mr Kennedy’s Westminster voting record was tainted by his ‘problem’ and led a Twitter campaign f ocusing on this voting record under the ‘Where’s Charlie’ hashtag.

It was subsequently revealed that Mr Kennedy had been spending more time in his constituency due to the death of his mother in 2013 and of his father in April this year.

Mr Blackford and Mr Smith are ‘friends’ on Facebook and follow each other on Twitter.

Their family bonds were highlighted when Mr Smith’s son Stephen ran stalls for Mr Blackford at a local Co-op ahead of the General Election.

Mr Blackford, a former banker from Edinburgh, owns a large property less than a mile from Mr Smith’s detached house close to the village of Glendale on Skye. ‘ They l i ve close together and have been friends for some time,’ a source close to the two men said, speaking under condition of anonymity.

‘Both Brian and his son helped Ian with his campaigning, so how Ian couldn’t stop the comments is a mystery.’

Mr Smith’s abuse became so prolific – sending more than 130 messages to Mr Kennedy on Twitter alone – before the election that Mr Kennedy’s campaign team was f orced to employ staff to monitor his [Mr Kennedy’s] Facebook page.

When he was eventually blocked from posting abusive comments on Mr Kennedy’s Facebook page, Mr Smith used other social media platforms to berate the politician.

His posts saw him brand Mr Kennedy ‘ a Quisling’ and repeatedly mock his alcoholism.

Hours after the election result was announced, he wrote on Facebook: ‘ GIRFUY (an acronym for ‘Get it right f****** up you’) you drunken slob Kennedy. Lies smears and deceit don’t work. Bye Bye!’

His Facebook page also reveals that Mr Smith spent much of the campaign in the SNP’s local ‘hub’ in Portree.

Last night, Mr Blackford insisted he had never seen any of the abusive Twitter messages because he did not ‘have time’ to consult his social media pages.

An SNP spokesman yesterday announced that Mr Smith had resigned, saying: ‘Mr Smith was spoken to and accepts that his comments during the campaign were entirely inappropriate.

‘As a result, he has resigned as convener of the Skye and Lochalsh branch.’

Mr Blackford said he had ‘encouraged’ Mr Smith to step down because his behaviour had not been ‘acceptable’.

Mr Smith, whose Twitter account was deleted last night, declined to comment.

‘Comments were inappropriate’