SHOWER OF SCOTLAND
Police investigations, parliamentary probes, marriage-wrecking affairs, resignations and suspensions, troughing expenses and vile internet abuse...why the charge sheet against Nationalist MPs is both damning and raises vital questions over SNP vetting of
IT began with an ambitious pledge by Alex Salmond to ‘shake Westminster to its foundations’. Nicola Sturgeon said proudly that ‘the people of Scotland have spoken’ and ‘they have placed their trust in the SNP to represent Scotland at Westminster as well as at Holyrood’.
‘Our job is to repay the trust shown in us,’ she vowed, posing alongside her battalion of new MPs after the General Election in 2015, ‘and I pledge today that is exactly what we will do.’
But those grand promises unravelled amid police investigations, junkets, exorbitant expenses claims, parliamentary rule breaches, alleged nepotism, hypocrisy, online abuse of opponents – and even an old-fashioned sex scandal.
The cohort began with 56 MPs but dropped to 54 after two of them – Natalie McGarry and Michelle Thomson – resigned the whip amid police probes.
Those heady early days had begun with the Nationalists attempting a takeover of the green benches formerly dominated by Labour.
With some chutzpah, Dundee West MP Chris Law immediately laid claim to the berth normally occupied by veteran Labour MP Dennis Skinner, who had sat in the same spot for three decades.
Boisterous and determined to challenge the conventions of an institution they claimed to loathe, the Nationalists incurred the wrath of the Speaker by defying a ban on clapping in the chamber.
Two weeks on from the election, the longestserving member of the House of Commons, the late Gerald Kaufman, issued a withering assessment of the behaviour of the unprecedented intake of Nationalist MPs.
‘I think that their conduct is infantile,’ he said. ‘They’re goons and if they go on like this, instead of using their undoubted mandate from the Scottish people to be serious about issues on behalf of Scotland, they will devalue themselves.’
Instead, many of the new MPs became better known for boorish PR stunts, starting petty fights with rivals, carousing in Commons bars – and scoffing subsidised junk food in its restaurants.
They delighted in taking ‘selfies’ in the Palace of Westminster (in deliberate breach of rules that outlaw photography there) and brashly evicted the Lib Dems from offices they had occupied for more than a century.
‘The new Scottish battalion chooses as its Commons howff [hang-out] the Sports and Social Club, located in a basement near the rubbish bins,’ wrote George Kerevan, MP for East Lothian.
‘Inside, this looks and feels like a Glasgow pub.’
According to one Westminster blog, Mhairi Black (who once dubbed the vodka-based Smirnoff Ice ‘drink of the Gods’ on her Twitter feed) was spotted there drinking ‘snakebite’ – an intoxicating drink popular with teenagers, which consists of half a pint of lager, half a pint of cider and a shot of blackcurrant cordial.
Later she would claim that she hated the Commons and found it ‘depressing’.
The revelry turned sour as a steady stream of controversies left the First Minister’s hubristic pledge that the SNP would become the ‘real opposition’ at Westminster in tatters.
Allegations of gross hypocrisy, rule-breaking, expenses-milking – and the launch of full-blown police investigations – also raised serious questions over the quality of the party’s candidate vetting system. Some attempts were later made to tighten up the system but all existing MPs, bar McGarry and Mrs Thomson, are to stand again in June’s snap election – so that many of the same contingent may regain their seats.
As the negative publicity grew, the Nationalists became a little less disruptive – but maintained their claim to be ‘the only effective opposition to the Tory government’.
Those Nationalist MPs who do have any public profile – and the majority remain relative unknowns – tend to have achieved it for all the wrong reasons.
Here we catalogue the scandals that have dogged the SNP group at Westminster since that far-off day in May 2015, when Miss Sturgeon said she was ‘bursting with pride’ for her new colleagues:
POLICE PROBES NATALIE MC GARRY
THE Glasgow East MP is facing a series of alleged fraud charges following a ‘missing money’ scandal that led to her resigning the SNP whip in November 2015.
She was placed under police investigation over claims £30,000 was missing from Women for Independence, which she co-founded, and in September last year she was charged over five separate allegations.
A further complaint about alleged financial discrepancies was made by the SNP’s Glasgow Regional Association, of which McGarry – once a close ally of Miss Sturgeon – was convener.
In June 2016, McGarry was forced to apologise and agreed to pay out £10,000 after falsely claiming a pro-Union campaigner was a ‘Holocaust denier’.
Last year, 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.
It also emerged last year that McGarry’s Commons credit card had been temporarily blocked when she owed £2,270 to parliamentary authorities. Her office blamed a ‘mix-up’ which had been ‘rectified’.
On Wednesday, McGarry, who announced she was pregnant this week, also voted against holding a General Election.
MICHELLE THOMSON
THE Edinburgh West MP resigned the whip in September 2015 when a Police Scotland investigation was launched into her mortgage deals.
She was reported to the procurator fiscal in December 2016 in connection with a probe into a solicitor who acted for her property firm.
Christopher Hales was struck off following a series of deals which raised questions over possible mortgage fraud.
Prosecutors are examining the case.
Earlier this week, Mrs Thomson voted against holding a snap General Election – and criticised her former SNP colleagues for abstaining.
BARE-FACED HYPOCRISY ANGUS ROBERTSON
IN the Commons this week, the SNP’s deputy leader said ‘all elected mainstream parties and parliamentarians have a mandate and that that should be respected’ – and condemned ‘intemperate language’ in ‘democratic debates’.
But he faced allegations of double standards because of the SNP’s failure to discipline Pete Wishart for vile online slurs against opposition supporters.
Moray MP Mr Robertson, above, the SNP’s Westminster group
leader, once billed the taxpayer for a £400 home cinema system, but has insisted he is a ‘supporter of transparency’.
Only a few months after the SNP’s historic election victory in 2015, the spotlight fell on Mr Robertson’s partner – now wife – Jennifer Dempsie.
Following meetings arranged by Miss Dempsie – ex-special adviser to Alex Salmond – the T in the Park music festival was given £150,000 of taxpayers’ money.
The row plunged the SNP into a cronyism row and Miss Dempsie was forced to ditch her plan to run as a candidate for the SNP.
While public spending watchdog Audit Scotland found no guidelines had been breached, the funding deal was deemed not transparent or robust enough and the decision-making process for awarding public money was criticised.
IAN BLACKFORD
MR Blackford, right, branded the Tories ‘callous’ and ‘heartless’ over welfare reforms.
But he is probably best known for the way in which his election helper, SNP official Brian Smith, cruelly hounded the MP’s predecessor, Charles Kennedy, about his alcoholism in the run-up to his death.
As a result, Mr Blackford was banned from Mr Kennedy’s funeral.
Mr Kennedy’s former campaign manager Conn O’Neil said at the time: ‘The nastiness of Ian Blackford and his cronies perplexes those of us who respect the gentlemanly conventions of politics.’
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. The Ross, Skye and Lochaber MP campaigned for a crackdown on nuisance phone calls – but was linked to a company that has been investigated for its cold-calling practices.
The Mail revealed in January last year that Mr Blackford was chairman of the Golden Charter Trust, earning him the equivalent of £777 an hour for a lucrative second job.
The trust was set up to hold, invest and administer the money received by Golden Charter Ltd, a separate entity and one of the country’s largest independent providers of funeral plans.
Vulnerable pensioners, including an elderly woman who was battling cancer for the third time, had complained about being targeted by callers from Golden Charter Ltd trying to sell funeral plans.
PHIL BOSWELL
MR Boswell was labelled a ‘hypocrite’ when it emerged that, having spoken out against tax avoidance, he had used an £18,000 interestfree loan to minimise his own tax bill.
He benefited from a tax avoidance scheme while working as contracts manager for US energy company Phillips 66, then used parliamentary time to call for the Treasury to do more to stop people benefiting from loopholes that allow them to avoid tax.
The MP for Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill was also ordered to repay £555 after charging taxpayers for a series of videos promoting the SNP and Scottish Govern- ment. The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) found they were ‘clearly party political’ and well outside the rules on acceptable use of public funds.
The parliamentary watchdog, set up after the expenses scandal, found only one of six YouTube videos which he tried to claim for was justified.
Mr Boswell was also found guilty of one breach by Commons standards commissioner Kathryn Hudson, when he had to apologise after failing to record his directorship of a firm called Boswell & Johnston.
The MP was criticised after it emerged he had charged the public hundreds of pounds to drive between his Aberdeenshire home and his Central Belt seat.
In the months after being elected, Mr Boswell repeatedly used a hire car for the journey of around 130 miles to his family house.
It also emerged in March last year that he was claiming £1,250 a month rent for a luxury home in his constituency – as well as £1,500 for London hotel bills.
And Mr Boswell faced further criticism when he tried to bill the public for clothes after losing his luggage.
DR LISA CAMERON
THE east Kilbride MP campaigned against the sell-off of social housing but was accused of ‘shameless hypocrisy’ after buying up ex-council flats.
In January 2016, the Mail revealed that she had made thousands of pounds from renting the properties to her constituents.
Details emerged of her £628,000 portfolio of seven properties, which included five former local authority dwellings in impoverished areas – three of which were repossessions, sold off at bargain prices after previous owners could not keep up their mortgage payments.
TOMMY SHEPPARD
THE edinburgh east MP admitted breaking Westminster rules – despite sitting on the committee tasked with upholding them.
It emerged last year that Mr Sheppard, a member of the Parliamentary Standards Committee, failed to declare his interests in two comedy festival companies.
Mr Sheppard said at the time: ‘It’s embarrassing because I was on the committee that upholds the rules – and inadvertently I broke one of the rules myself. I was mortified… but I did break the rules.’
Mr Sheppard was director and main shareholder of Salt ’n’ Sauce Promotions, which runs The Stand comedy clubs in edinburgh, Glasgow and Newcastle.
The MP declared this in the official Register of Members’ Financial Interests but failed to mention that he is also company director of The Scottish Comedy Agency. He was later cleared of wrongdoing by the Commons standards watchdog.
JUNKETEERS ANGUS MACNEIL
BETTER known for his energetic love life, of which more later, Mr MacNeil claimed £5,300 on expenses – to pay for classes in the Icelandic language.
The MP pointed to the historic Viking connections of his Western Isles constituency as his reason for getting the taxpayer to bankroll the lessons.
Mr MacNeil accompanied Miss Sturgeon on a trip to Reykjavik last October to address the Arctic Circle Assembly – where she announced a £1million fund to support developing countries in their efforts to tackle climate change.
JOANNA CHERRY
THE QC, who represents edinburgh South West, was one of four Nationalist MPs accused of wasting taxpayers’ money after posing with an SNP banner during a New York parade.
The MPs posted pictures online of themselves earlier this month marching through the streets of New York with an SNP banner during the Tartan Day Parade.
Questions are being asked about whether they broke strict rules which govern the use of the so-called ‘short money’.
A House of Commons briefing paper states that parties must confirm that all spending using ‘short money’ is ‘incurred exclusively in relation to the party’s parliamentary business’.
It also states that when travel expenses are claimed, this must be ‘incurred by an opposition party’s spokesmen in relation to the party’s parliamentary business’.
The SNP has refused to provide a full itinerary of engagements carried out by the MPs.
MILKING THE TAXPAYER STEVEN PATERSON
THE Stirling MP’s office submitted a £40 claim for mileage after a member of his staff had to make arrangements for the care of a pet dog while working in London.
His office submitted a claim in November 2015 for mileage after staff made arrangements for the pet.
The claim related to £40.50 for a return journey from Alloa, Clackmannanshire, to Upper Largo, Fife, on November 22, 2015.
The claim stated that this was for a staff member, named only as Lee,
and his ‘arrangements for care of dog while in London’.
In the ‘Journey Type’ box on the expenses submission, the 90mile trip was described as ‘staff travel for training’.
Originally, the claim was approved by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority.
Though the money has since been paid back, Mr Paterson was widely criticised.
Mr Paterson claimed the fifth highest travel bill in the Commons at £41,506 in 2015-16.
He ran up a total bill of £202,641 last year – making him the tenth most expensive MP.
MHAIRI BLACK
THe Paisley MP and self-styled working-class hero was branded a ‘champagne Nationalist’ after claiming almost £13,500 for business class flights between Glasgow and London.
She has declared she will run again in June’s election despite hinting last month that she might step down, saying: ‘It has been nearly two years and I still hate the place. It is depressing.’
Asked if she would stand for re-election, she said in March: ‘I don’t know. I think you should only stand in politics if you think there’s a need for you to be in it.’
TASMINA AHMED-SHEIKH
THe MP for Ochil and South Perthshire has been criticised for her high level of spending on London hotel costs, claiming £10,490 between May and December 2015.
She was also a member of the SNP delegation on its controversial trip to the US over the easter recess.
The former lawyer jetted off to Iran for ‘trade talks’ with Alex Salmond in 2015. This was despite the Tehran regime being described by the Obama administration as ‘an active state sponsor of terrorism’.
ALEX SALMOND
THe former SNP leader was mired in a row over second jobs when it emerged his earnings are now close to £200,000 a year – before including the £10,000 in royalties from his autobiography.
He also claimed more in travel costs than any other MP in the UK, by running up an extraordinary £48,471 bill in the year since his election in May 2015, for him and his staff.
The former First Minister also splashed out £10,000 on bonuses for his staff in 2015-16, in addition to their normal salaries, under the Commons system designed to reward and recognise their efforts – making him the Commons’ most generous employer.
JOHN NICOLSON
THe SNP culture spokesman and east Dunbartonshire MP handed his staff £7,000 in taxpayer-funded bonuses.
At a time when many private sector workers face pay freezes or cuts, Mr Nicolson was among 58 MPs who shelled out bonuses ranging from £50 to £3,000 on ‘rewards and recognition’ payments for their staff.
KEEPING IT IN THE FAMILY CORRI WILSON
THe Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock MP hired her son Kieran Donoghue as a personal assistant throughout 2015-16 following her election victory.
He no longer works for her – as he was replaced by the MP’s daughter, Shannon Donoghue.
There was also controversy when it emerged that Chic Brodie, a former Nationalist MSP, paid £88,000 of taxpayers’ money to a firm 90 per cent owned by Miss Wilson, pictured, for ‘administrative support’ before she stood for Westminster.
She was also part of the recent US junket for Scotland Week.
It also emerged that Miss Wilson allowed her staff to spend almost £19,000 on expenses – including business class flights and luxury London hotels – in the year she employed her son.
MPs will be banned from hiring spouses or children on the public purse after the election in June.
Parliament’s expenses watchdog has ordered that no family members should be employed with state funds in future because it is ‘out of step’ with modern employment practice.
However, MPs will not have to sack relatives on the payroll if they are already working for them at Westminster or in their constituency offices.
DR PAUL MONAGHAN
THe Caithness MP paid his brother more than seven weeks’ overtime from the public purse in only a year.
He signed off 255.75 extra hours for his sibling Mark for his work as the MP’s constituency communications manager. The seven-week figure is based on an employee working a 35-hour week.
While his brother’s salary has not been disclosed, the role of communications manager would usually attract a salary of around £30,000.
With overtime paid at 1.5 times the normal hourly rate, this suggests the extra payments were worth up to £6,000.
TROLLS AND BULLIES PETE WISHART
THe Perth MP, below, has become a liability for the Nationalists, most recently claiming that political parties who back Scotland remaining in the UK are ‘w **** ’, while the SNP and others who favour independence are ‘good guys’.
A Holyrood motion by Tory MSP Murdo Fraser urges Miss Sturgeon to take ‘immediate steps to condemn Mr Wishart’s behaviour and have the SNP whip withdrawn from him’.
The SNP has accused Mr Fraser of ‘faux outrage’.
Former Runrig keyboardist Mr Wishart also provoked fury for mocking the elderly by referring to supporters of Tony Blair as ‘your embarrassing incontinent old relatives’.
Speaker John Bercow has described Mr Wishart as an ‘aspiring statesman’, before adding: ‘His aspiration may be a little way from fulfilment.’
DR PAUL MONAGHAN
DR MONAGHAN was unmasked as an internet troll, using Twitter to accuse the ‘proud Jewish race’ of ‘persecuting the people of Gaza’, which the Jewish Chronicle described as ‘anti-Semitic’.
He is also a republican who refers to the Queen as ‘Mrs SaxeCoburg-Gotha’ – the House title that was replaced with Windsor by King George V during the First World War.
In one tasteless tweet in 2012, he questioned the parentage of Prince Harry, referencing rumours about former cavalry officer James Hewitt, who was the Princess of Wales’s secret lover for five years.
Dr Monaghan also described Prince Harry as a ‘moron’ and referred to the Duchess of Cambridge as ‘Mrs Kate SaxeCoburg-Gotha, unemployed of London’.
He also has a furious dislike for the Union Flag, calling it the ‘butcher’s apron’. He said the ‘rag’ – suited to ‘bigots, zealots and fantasists’ – should be ripped up and is ‘unfit to wipe the floor of a pigsty’.
Dr Monaghan has also been accused of acting like Vladimir Putin’s ‘mouthpiece in Scotland’ after he criticised a US decision to expel Russian diplomats.
ANGUS MACNEIL
He retweeted an internet ‘meme’ in December last year suggesting that Unionist Scots were suffering from ‘Stockholm Syndrome’, the psychological condition where hostages develop a bond with their kidnappers.
The Scottish Tories said: ‘If a pro-UK politician had made reference to Stockholm Syndrome in relation to independence, the SNP would be straight out of the traps demanding apologies and resignations.’
Last year, Mr MacNeil branded Scots ‘fools’ for believing official figures showing that the Scottish economy was worse than that of Greece or Spain.
He tweeted: ‘Icelander asked me today to effect “Are Scots still falling for that GeRS deficit p***?” – “some fools like to be fooled” was the reply :)))’
JOHN NICOLSON
TOGeTHeR with colleague Pete Wishart, Mr Nicolson was accused of helping to ‘gag’ a Scottish Television journalist, successfully putting pressure on the broadcaster to prevent him from writing commentaries online.
While running for election in 2015, the east Dunbartonshire MP, a former BBC newsreader, was criticised for demanding that university bosses give a leading academic ‘extra marking’ after she criticised Mr Nicolson online.
He sent the bizarre email to the master of Birbeck College in London after a Twitter exchange with Dr Belinda Brooks-Gordon.
LOVE TRIANGLE STEWART HOSIE, ANGUS MACNEIL
MR Hosie, MP for Dundee east, stepped down as SNP deputy leader after having an affair with a journalist – who previously had a fling with Mr MacNeil.
He and Mr MacNeil took time out from the stressful business of being the ‘real opposition’ by having affairs with the same political journalist, Serena Cowdy.
Mr Hosie’s philandering ended his marriage to Health Secretary Shona Robison, a long-standing ally and close friend of Miss Sturgeon.
A besotted Miss Cowdy is said to have described SNP parliamentarians as ‘the Mujahideen of British politicians’, while Mr Hosie is said to have worn white Marks & Spencer Y-fronts during their passionate meetings.
Mr Hosie later resigned as SNP deputy leader citing high blood pressure.
LIGHTWEIGHTS AND TIME-WASTERS PATRICK GRADY
THe Glasgow North MP wore a special Star Trek-themed tie to table an early day motion urging political colleagues to recognise ‘the significant cultural and scientific impact of the show’.
MARTYN DAY
THe Linlithgow and east Falkirk MP, below, welcomed the arrival of fracked gas from the US last year.
But, demonstrating a profound lack of principle of which his superiors would be proud, he said he would not support fracking in Scotland – even if it were proved to be safe.
‘even if they come back with evidence to say this can be done, technically, safely and without a problem, the issue then becomes reputational damage,’ he claimed.
Former SNP deputy leader Jim Sillars said the comment ‘leaves me in despair’ as it suggested the SNP leadership was ‘buying the green scaremongering’ and had ‘descended into the land of absurdity’.
STEWART McDONALD
MR MCDONALD – representing Glasgow South – was one of a number of MPs to sign a motion which ‘welcomes the unveiling of a new public Christmas tree on Maryhill Road, Glasgow’.
On Twitter this week he boasted about asking Theresa May in the Commons: ‘Does it not take some brass neck to call an election whilst facing allegations of buying the last one?’ – a reference to the row over Tory election expenses.
The Prime Minister told him ‘that intervention was not worthy of the honorary gentleman’.
Mr McDonald has billed the public £9,550 for ‘staff rewards’ and paid the single largest bonus of any MP, at £3,000.