SNP split hits new low amid claims of witch-hunt

A SPLIT has emerged within the ranks of the SNP in Argyll amid claims of a witch-hunt after the party lost two councillors.

Iain Angus MacDonald resigned from his seat in the Oban North and Lorn Ward of Argyll and Bute Council and declined to return calls seeking a comment on the shock move.

Fellow Oban SNP Councillor Iain Stewart MacLean then withdrew from the party’s council group because of irreconcilable differences.

And when Mr MacLean announced he was staying on, as a non-party councillor, SNP council group leader Sandy Taylor called for his resignation.

Stalwart SNP supporter Linda Allan, expressing her anger in a post on the Oban and Lorn SNP Facebook page, claimed: “The lack of support for these two councillors has been evident for some time.

“The leader of the SNP council group and some of the councillors should be thinking long and hard about the failure of the group to maintain unity.

“Some people have very short memories and both of these councillors are far from the first to be on the receiving end of a witch hunt.”

The SNP has lost nine Argyll councillors, for various reasons, since 2012, including former council leader Roddy McCuish.

He remains a non-party councillor,and said he was banned from the SNP after forming a coalition with other political groups in 2013.

He said: “It’s extremely disappointing the way the SNP is going in Argyll and Bute, after getting an unprecedented amount of councillors elected in 2012, there must be something wrong.”