MP sued for £30,000 after clash on Twitter
MP Natalie McGarry – currently suspended from the SNP – is being sued for £30,000 after accusing a leading anti-independence campaigner of being a Holocaust denier.
The politician has been served with a writ demanding a response by May 3 – two days before the Scottish election.
It is estimated that, if she refuses to apologise and pay damages, she will face a defamation trial that could lead to her having to pay £30,000, plus legal fees.
If this led to her bankruptcy, she may be forced to step down as an MP – but even if she attempts to settle out of court, she will face damages and lawyers’ fees of more than £10,000.
The development is the latest setback in Miss McGarry’s short parliamentary career, which has already seen her suspended from the SNP amid a police investigation into cash missing from a pro-independence organisation.
She is one of a number of Nationalist politicians who have been accused of impropriety, including MP Michelle Thomson, who is involved in a Police Scotland investigation into mortgage fraud.
The row also comes after Miss McGarry was forced to apologise to Harry Potter
‘An internet troll and an outed Holocaust denier’
author JK Rowling after she used Twitter to allege that the writer defends ‘abusive misogynist trolls’.
In the latest incident, Alastair Cameron, head of Scotland in Union, has served a writ on the Glasgow East MP over another post she made on Twitter.
It is suspected that her tweet – which said ‘leading Unionist figures do know that “Scotland in Union” is headed by an internet troll and an outed holocaust denier, right?’ – may have been a case of mistaken identity.
Miss McGarry deleted the tweet and wrote: ‘I’d add however, that you should be careful who is distributing your materials, but apologies etc.’
But Mr Cameron has said: ‘Reluctantly, I have been forced to take this action because of Miss McGarry’s failure to respond to my request for an appropriate apology for her offensive and inaccurate comments on Twitter.
‘It is not acceptable for a Member of Parliament to make such an awful accusation against someone and then simply brush it off.’
Scotland in Union said: ‘She will now be taken to court unless she responds.’
Mr Cameron is a full-time consultant in the financial services industry and has a degree in modern history from St Andrews University. The married father from Edinburgh, who receives no payment for his role as director of Scotland in Union, is a former captain in the Highlanders, 4th Battalion, the Royal Regiment of Scotland.
A House of Commons spokesman said: ‘If an MP is subject to a bankruptcy restrictions order [which prevents, for example, taking out a loan or mortgage for a period of time] their seat is vacated [they are required to stand down] but you can be bankrupt without being subject to a bankruptcy restrictions order.’
Miss McGarry resigned the SNP whip at Westminster last year, leading to her automatic suspension, following claims that up to £30,000 has disappeared from the Women for Independence (WfI) group accounts. The MP, who was one of the most prominent pro-independence campaigners during the referendum, helped to form WfI and registered the organisation as an official participant in the campaign, informing the Electoral Commission she was responsible for ‘finance and compliance’.
Miss McGarry denies any wrongdoing.
In February, the 34-year-old MP was detained by Turkish security forces after she tried to ‘record the sound of falling bombs’.
The diplomatic incident occurred in the country’s south-east war zone, around 100 miles from the Syrian border, which she was visiting with a delegation of trade unionists. She was later released.
In March, it emerged that her Commons credit card had been temporarily blocked when she owed £2,270 to parliamentary authorities in January.
Her office blamed a ‘mix-up’ and said the situation had been ‘rectified’.
In September last year, Edinburgh West MP Mrs Thomson resigned the SNP whip and was also suspended from the party, following the launch of an ongoing police investigation into mortgage fraud. Around 100 people are being interviewed as part of that probe.
Concern has been growing within the SNP over the quality of vetting of candidates, which is led by chief executive Peter Murrell, who is also Nicola Sturgeon’s husband. In the wake of this, the SNP is to put every councillor and local election candidate through a ‘vetting process’.
The party will shortly embark on its selection contest for the 2017 council elections, when the Nationalists could seize control of Labour strongholds such as Glasgow.
‘I have been forced to take this action’