MP Margaret Ferrier should be suspended from the Commons for 30 days for breaching Covid rules, the standards committee has recommended.
The suspension would likely lead to a by-election in her Rutherglen constituency if it was imposed.
Labour would have high hopes of winning any by-election in Rutherglen. Ms Ferrier had a majority of 5,230 at the last general election when she won the SNP for the SNP, with Labour finishing second.
The electorate for Rutherglen and Hamilton West in the 2019 general election was 80,918 - therefore just over 8,000 people would have to sign the petition to remove Ms Ferrier.
A petition officer then arranges for the petition to be open for six weeks. According to House of Commons Library, electors can sign it in person at a signing station or by post or proxy. If the 10% threshold is reached the petition officer informs the Speaker of the House of Commons - the seat becomes vacant when this notice is given.
Two MPs have been recalled through this process both in 2019 - Labour’s Fiona Onasanya of Peterborough and Conservative Chris Davies of Brecon and Radnorshire.
Ms Onasanya, who lied to police over a speeding ticket, had been jailed for three months for perverting the course of justice.
Meanwhile Mr Davies had pleaded guilty to two charges of making a false expenses claim.
This will be the first recall petition held in Scotland.
People can campaign for or against recall petitions and the Electoral Commission has rules in place for spending and donations on such campaigns.
“Covid Margaret” reminds me of “Typhoid Mary” - and she should have resigned last year, in my opinion.
I could hardly believe she had the brass neck to appeal the decision to suspend her from Parliament, considering she has already pleaded Guilty to the criminal charge against her.
When you think of the places where you come into close proximity of other people, she decided to mingle in most of those places after being tested and while waiting for her test results! - Church, the pub, the train, the Houses of Parliament - then when she got her test results and was certain she did have Covid, she got on another train from London to Glasgow, just to spread it around a bit more.
Sheesh!
It would be an early electoral test for new SNP leader Humza Yousaf, with Labour hopeful of winning the seat.
Ferrier has already been ordered to complete a 270-hour community payback order by a court after admitting culpably and recklessly exposing the public “to the risk of infection, illness and death”.
SNP MP David Linden said: “There must now be a by-election, which the SNP has been calling for since Ms Ferrier’s Covid rule breach first came to light in 2020.”
MPs voted by 185 to 40 in favour of suspending Ferrier from parliament for 30 days, with the suspension due to start on Wednesday.
Of the 40 MPs who voted against the motion and opposed Margaret Ferrier’s suspension, 32 were Conservatives, two were DUP, two were Alba - Neale Hanvey and Kenny MacAskill - and one was Reclaim.
The Conservatives who backed her included former ministers David Davis and Jacob Rees-Mogg, and party grandees Sir Bill Cash and Sir Edward Leigh.
The result means a recall petition can now be started. More than 10% of registered voters in the constituency will need to sign the petition for a by-election to be held.
Opinion polls have suggested that support for the SNP has fallen in recent months against a backdrop of Nicola Sturgeon resigning as first minister and party leader, and the ongoing police investigation into the party’s finances.
Ms Ferrier was accompanied in the Commons by Conservative former minister Andrew Selous and SNP MP Carol Monaghan.
At one point, Conservative MP Daniel Kawczynski was seen walking to the opposition benches to shake her hand.
Ferrier’s a gonner but, obviously, will draw her salary and expenses until the last possible moment …
This woman is typical of the “planks” in parliament who are supposed to represent us. I alway say show me an MP who tells the truth and I will show you a lair .
The government seem to blunder from one witch hunt to another wasting time and money on trivial things and the MSM just keep wafting the flames…This country is just a joke these days.
The recall petition which could lead to a by-election in MP Margaret Ferrier’s constituency has closed.
Ferrier, the former SNP member for Rutherglen and Hamilton West, was suspended from the Commons for 30 days after being convicted of breaking Covid travel rules during lockdown.
A by-election will be triggered if more than 10% of voters in the constituency vote for her recall.
The votes will be counted and the result announced on Tuesday afternoon. The petition, the first in Scotland since the procedure was introduced in 2015, opened on June 20 and closes at 5pm.
A by-election has been triggered after MP Margaret Ferrier, who was suspended from the Commons for breaking Covid lockdown rules, lost her seat in a recall petition.
A total of 11,896 out of the 81,124 eligible constituents in Rutherglen and Hamilton West signed the petition.
That exceeded the 10% threshold and means a by-election will take place.
The seat becomes vacant from the moment the petition officer, who oversaw the count, informs the Speaker of the House of Commons of the result.
The date for the by-election will be set when parliament resumes in September.
