NATIONALIST MP CHARGED WITH FRAUD
McGarry arrested over probe into missing money
A SCOTS MP was yesterday arrested and charged over a series of fraud allegations following a ‘missing money’ scandal.
Natalie McGarry, who represents Glasgow East, was suspended from the SNP last year amid claims of around £30,000 missing from the Women for Independence (WfI) group, which she co-founded.
A further complaint about alleged financial discrepancies was made by the SNP’s Glasgow Regional Association, of which McGarry – once a close ally of Nicola Sturgeon – was convener.
Police Scotland launched an investigation in November last year and yesterday it emerged McGarry faced five separate charges and is the subject of a report to the procurator fiscal.
The MP voluntarily attended Govan police station in Glasgow yesterday morning, where she was detained, questioned and charged before being released.
Her lawyer Aamer Anwar said: ‘I can confirm that Natalie McGarry MP attended voluntarily, with myself as her solicitor, at
Govan police station. Following an interview, she was charged with several alleged offences including embezzlement of funds, breach of trust and an offence under the Scottish Independence Referendum Act 2013.
‘She was released and will now be the subject of a report to the procurator fiscal. There will be no further comment.’
Sources close to the inquiry said a fivefigure sum was involved in the fraud allegations.
A Police Scotland spokesman said ‘a 35-year-old woman was charged in connection with alleged fraud offences’ and that a report would be sent to the procurator fiscal.
McGarry was elected as Nationalist MP for Glasgow East in May 2015, when the SNP won all but three of the 59 Scottish seats at Westminster.
In November last year, the MP resigned the party whip as police investigated concerns over the missing money.
As a result she was automatically sus- pended from the party, and currently sits as an independent MP in the House of Commons.
Yesterday, WfI said on Twitter: ‘We will be making no public comment on today’s news.’
McGarry has previously insisted there had been ‘no wrong-doing’ on her part.
The scandal rocked Miss Sturgeon last year after it emerged SNP chiefs were told of the alleged financial discrepancies weeks before the MP’s suspension. Miss Sturgeon looked weak after she failed to take disciplinary action against the MP, leaving her to resign the whip, which triggers automatic suspension.
Earlier this year, McGarry was forced to apologise and pay £10,000 after falsely claiming on social media that pro-Union campaigner Alastair Cameron was a ‘Holocaust denier’.
In February, she was detained by Turkish security forces after she tried to ‘record the sound of falling bombs’ in the country’s south-east war zone, around 100 miles from the Syrian border. She was visiting with a trade union delegation.
In March, it emerged that McGarry’s Commons credit card had been temporarily blocked when she owed £2,270 to parliamentary authorities. Her office blamed a
‘Alleged fraud offences’
‘mix-up’ and said this had been ‘rectified’.
It has been a torrid year for McGarry. But in June she posted pictures online of her signing a marriage register with her new husband, Glasgow Tory councillor David Meikle, and celebrating later with friends and family.
She tweeted: ‘What did you do this weekend? We got married! Thanks to our families and friends for making it such a beautiful day.’ She stunned onlookers by turning up at Westminster in her wedding dress to have the marriage blessed. She decided to keep the vintage ivory gown on when a vote was called, allowing her to mingle with fellow politicians in the lobby.
She even wore the dress for an official photograph of all female MPs in the Commons Chamber to mark the 150th anniversary of the campaign to give women the vote.
Earlier this year, McGarry was advised to step up her security after receiving death threats online. She called police after being sent messages threatening murder and rape via email, Facebook and Twitter. The posts were sent following her trip to Turkey.
It is understood the MP contacted parliamentary security, who urged her to call the Metropolitan Police. She was advised by Police Scotland to upgrade security at her Glasgow constituency office.
McGarry said at the time: ‘I have been on the receiving end of a barrage of threats of violence and misogynistic abuse.’
In a separate Nationalist scandal in September last year, Edinburgh West MP Michelle Thomson resigned the SNP whip and was also suspended from the party, following the launch of an ongoing police investigation into mortgage fraud.
Miss Sturgeon said in May last year that she took responsibility for ‘everything that happens in the SNP as leader’.
She added: ‘Ultimately, it’s one of the responsibilities of leadership. Ultimately, the buck stops with me, as it stopped with Alex [Salmond] for the last ten years. That’s part of being a leader.’
Under the Representation of the People Act, any MP detained in the UK for more than a year is disqualified from membership of the Commons and their seat is then vacated.