Yousaf: Expelling Angus MacNeil from SNP ‘absolutely the right thing to do’
H
umza Yousaf has insisted expelling veteran MP Angus MacNeil from the SNP was “absolutely the right thing to do”.
He spoke out after Mr MacNeil, who has been an SNP MP since 2005, introduced he had been faraway from the social gathering.
The Na h-Eileanan an Iar (Western Isles) MP tweeted late on the Thursday that the “summer of member expulsion, has indeed come to pass”.
Mr MacNeil said he had been “expelled as a rank and file SNP member by a ‘member conduct committee’”.
He added: “I didn’t leave the SNP – the SNP have left me. I wish they were as bothered about independence as they are about me.”
Mr MacNeil was suspended from the social gathering’s Westminster group final month after reportedly clashing with chief whip Brendan O’Hara.
But he refused to right away rejoin the SNP group at Westminster after his suspension ended.
He additionally launched a press release attacking the SNP management’s strategy to independence, accusing it of an absence of urgency.
“I will only seek the SNP whip again if it is clear that the SNP are pursuing independence,” he wrote.
SNP chief and Scottish First Minister Humza Yousaf hit out: “I don’t understand this point about ‘the SNP left me’. He literally left the SNP.
“He literally wrote a public statement that said, ‘I’m not going to take the whip, I am not going to rejoin the SNP group’.”
Mr Yousaf, talking as he appeared at Iain Dale’s All Talk present on the Edinburgh Festival Fringe on Friday, recalled how he had beforehand labored as an intern at Westminster and had recognized Mr MacNeil for “many years”, saying he had “got along” with him “very well on a personal level”.
But Mr Yousaf stated: “>Regardless of your longevity as an MP or your service in the SNP, if you are elected as an SNP MP it is not for you to decide that you stop becoming an SNP MP.
“Your constituents elected you on a party ticket, that is why you got voted in.
“And for you to simply say, ‘I’ll just make a decision when I take the whip, when I’m part of the group, when I’m not part of the group’ well that has consequences.
“And ultimately that decision was taken by our member conduct committee.”
Mr Yousaf stated he had been knowledgeable of the choice of the member conduct committee, including: “I absolutely stand by that decision.”
The SNP chief insisted: “It is absolutely the right thing to do, because Angus Brendan MacNeil should be held to the same standard I would be held to as an elected politician, any elected politician in the SNP – and that is not that we can pick and choose when we decide to be SNP MPs or MSPs, especially if the electorate voted for us on the party ticket.”