Fed-up wife of love cheat SNP MP divorces him at last
After sordid Westminster love triangle and revelations of ‘post-ceilidh foolishness’ with two teens in a hotel room ... The dishonourable member’s FOUR women...
A NATIONALIST MP who was involved in a love triangle is being divorced by his wife.
Angus MacNeil, who represents the Western Isles, was at the centre of a political sex scandal after he had an affair – with a woman who was also seeing another married Nationalist MP.
Mr MacNeil had previously been caught in a hotel room with two teenagers after a dance – an incident he dismissed as ‘postceilidh foolishness’.
Now The Scottish Mail on Sunday can reveal he has been taken to court by his estranged wife ahead of an imminent divorce.
Jane MacNeil, who worked as her husband’s secretary for many years, started divorce proceedings that will be finalised this month.
Last night, Mr MacNeil said: ‘We agreed out of court. We are both happy, each side is happy it’s settled and we’re moving on.’
Mr MacNeil, 49, was born and brought up in Tangasdale, on the Isle of Barra, and worked as a journalist and a teacher before entering politics.
He married Jane in 1998 and she worked as his parliamentary secrewrong tary until 2015 – the same year their marriage broke down.
Mr MacNeil was elected MP for the Western Isles in 2005, only months before his drunken tryst with two teeenagers.
Revelations emerged in 2007 that Mr MacNeil drunkenly kissed and fondled the girls in a hotel room in Orkney – while his wife was pregnant with his youngest daughter.
He met Judie Morrison, then 17, and her 18-year-old friend Catriona Watt after attending an event in the summer of 2005.
The teenagers, both from Lewis, had just left school and were on a pub crawl when they met the MP in a hotel bar. They drank and played darts before he invited them to his room in the early hours of the morning. According to reports, they kissed on his hotel bed but did not have sex.
Two weeks later, Mr MacNeil and his wife celebrated the birth of the youngest of their three daughters.
When details of the incident emerged, Mr MacNeil issued a statement saying: ‘I bitterly regret that this incident occurred, and I apologise to my family for causing them embarrassment and hurt.
‘I also apologise to the young women involved and their families. I really should have known very much better.
‘Yes, some foolishness took place at a post-ceilidh party, which was and stupid. There is no allegation that anything further happened and I wish to make that absolutely clear.
‘It was a lapse of judgment two years ago, for which I am sorry.’
The MP later found himself in a love triangle with his mistress Serena Cowdy, who began a relationship with former SNP deputy leader Stewart Hosie.
Mr MacNeil had an ‘intense’ relationship with the journalist and even billed the taxpayer thousands of pounds for the hotel where they met during their affair.
He charged taxpayers £6,250 for overnight stays at London’s Park Plaza in 2014-15, where Miss Cowdy told friends she repeatedly spent the night with him.
Mr MacNeil’s marriage broke down not long afterwards.
It emerged at the time that Miss Cowdy had admitted to being ‘in love’ with Mr Hosie, as she bragged to friends about their nights of passion. She even described Nationalist MPs as the ‘sexy Mujahideen of British politics’.
Mr Hosie quit as deputy leader of the SNP after he and Mr MacNeil were both found to have had relationships with the same woman.
The Dundee East MP also gave up his role as Treasury spokesman and went on to marry Miss Cowdy in August 2018 – after the breakdown of his marriage to Holyrood’s former health secretary, Shona Robison. He was given his first major role for the SNP since the scandal this year, when he became international trade spokesman.
Jane MacNeil – who now goes by her maiden name, Douglas – initiated the divorce process, agreeing to settle matters outside court.
At Fort William Sheriff Court last week the case was continued until later this month for the divorce to be finalised.
‘Apologise to my family for causing them hurt’