Call for noshow MSPS to be kicked out of parliament
A proposal to expel MSPS who fail to attend Holyrood for six months may have unintended consequences
MSPS who do not turn up to Holyrood yet claim their full salary should be kicked out of the Scottish Parliament after six months, the Scottish Conservatives have said.
The call to change parliamentary practice comes as pressure mounts on shamed former finance secretary, Derek Mackay, to resign his seat after his complete absence from Holyrood since revelations that he had bombarded a teenage schoolboy with unwanted text messages.
While the SNP suspended his membership, parliamentary rules mean that parties cannot force individuals to resign their seats and as a result he is still collecting his £64,470 salary, despite not voting in Holyrood or attending constituency surgeries since 5 February.
Mr Mackay, who was being tipped in some circles as a potential future First Minister, quit his cabinet position just as he was due to deliver the Scottish Government budget, after it was revealed he had sent around 270 messages via social media to a 16-year-old he had never met, The messages sparked concerns about “grooming” behaviour as he asked the boy to dinner and to be his guest at a Scottish Parliament rugby event.
Opposition parties have been calling for his resignation and the local authority where he began his political career, Renfrewshire Council, has also passed a unanimous motion that he should quit as an MSP. Last week, the mother of the boy he pestered called for Mr Mackay to step down given his months of paid inactivity, saying it was “shocking” he was “sitting at home doing nothing and is still getting paid.”
It had previously been speculated that SNP senior officials wanted to ensure Mr Mackay retired from Holyrood due to ill health, as a result of the impact on his mental health of the revelations, to enable him to receive a £50,000 resettlement grant.
On Sunday the Scottish Tories demanded Mr Mackay turn up to parliament to answer questions about a £30 million loan given to crisis-hit shipyard Ferguson Marine, before he nationalised the Clyde yard, but now the party’s transport spokesman, Graham Simpson, said he will introduce a private bill in Holyrood to change the rules so MSPS who are “missing” can be relieved of their position.
The Bill, to be known as “Mackay’s Law” would mean any MSP who failed to show up to Holyrood for six months could no longer remain as an MSP.
“Most councils have rules on this and if Derek Mackay was a councillor and hadn’t done his job for six months then he would have been drummed out,” Mr Simpson said. “But there are no rules covering MSPS’ attendance, which means they can do nothing and pocket the cash. In theory, you could act like Derek Mackay is currently doing for five years. That is just wrong. If you are elected to the Scottish Parliament you should be a worker not a shirker. Nothing else should be allowed.
“If Mr Mackay had any honour left he would stand down and allow the people of Renfrewshire North and West to elect someone who will properly represent them.”
An SNP spokesman said: “Any proposals such as those the Tories are suggesting would apply to all parties, and would be for Parliament as a whole to discuss.”
Calls for MSPS who fail to attend the Scottish Parliament for six months to be kicked out may appear, on the face of it, to have justice on their side. But, as ever, things may not be as simple as they first appear.
On the one hand, if someone is elected to be a “Member of the Scottish Parliament” but they never actually go there, it could be argued that they have effectively deselected themselves. And the case that has led to calls from the Scottish Conservatives for a sixmonth limit on absence – that of the shamed former finance secretary Derek Mackay, who has not voted at Holyrood or attended constituency surgeries since it emerged he sent 270 unsolicited text messages to a schoolboy – could hardly be more compelling. It is plain that Mackay should no longer be an MSP and should resign forthwith.
However, this is an extreme and unusual case and there could be other reasons for a lengthy absence that would put the proposal in a different light.
For example, if a hard-working politician, well-respected in their constituency, fell seriously ill, would it be fair and reasonable to automatically expel them unless they were able to make a last-minute, tokenistic visit to Holyrood, perhaps in a wheelchair and attached to a drip?
The other main way to get rid of elected representatives no longer doing their job – or who have acted in such a way that they should no longer be allowed to – is the process of recall. This is an option to unseat MPS at Westminster and is also used in other countries around the world, including the US.
The problem is this can be open to abuse by political activists, particularly in marginal seats, unless precautions are taken to ensure that only the most obviously unfit politicians can be thrown out in this way.
MSPS do need some security of tenure because, sometimes, they have to take tough, unpopular decisions for the good of the country. If they constantly fear a Sword of Damocles hanging above their heads, they are likely to make decisions that are popular in the shortterm but which may not truly be in the long-term, national interest.
So while Holyrood should consider the Tories’ proposals for the so-called “Mackay’s law”, they need to be careful of unintended consequences. And, after deliberating, they may conclude that an informal, but still powerful, method of getting rid of the worst MSPS – public shaming – remains the best strategy.