A SECOND SNP councillor in North Lanarkshire has spoken to the police about alleged corruption by colleagues, the Sunday Herald can reveal.
The man, who has asked not be named for fear of reprisals, spent more than three hours at Motherwell police station last week.
He was asked to attend as a potential witness rather than a suspect, and discussed a series of recent planning deals in the region.
It is understood the police’s Counter Corruption Unit (CCU), which tackles corruption in public life, was involved in the process.
Last month it emerged that North Lanarkshire councillor Julie McAnulty had spoken to the CCU, based at Fettes in Edinburgh, for seven hours about alleged criminality in the SNP.
It was reported that she had made allegations of illegal payments over planning applications.
McAnulty is a key figure in the row over the so-called Monklands McMafia, the SNP faction accused of running the Lanarkshire party like a fiefdom and ruthlessly shutting down critics.
Central Scotland MSP Richard Lyle, the Holyrood candidate in Uddingston & Bellshill, has been the subject of numerous complaints to SNP HQ about his conduct in the McMafia row.
McAnulty, who crossed Lyle by standing against him for the Uddingston & Bellshill candidacy, was suspended after one of the MSP’s employees claimed she had made a racist remark.
Her supporters say she is the victim of a smear campaign.
The other faction in the Lanarkshire SNP is linked to new Coatbridge MP Phil Boswell.
The SNP last month suspended its Coatbridge & Chryston association because of infighting.
Party national secretary Patrick Grady said “a culture of mistrust” had created a “toxic” environment in which “the level of discord is intolerable”.
A Police Scotland spokesman said: Concerns have been raised with the police and this matter is currently under review”.
Editor’s note: In 2019, Ms McAnulty won a legal action in libel against the person who had accused her of making a racist remark. The court concluded that the allegation was “unfounded” and “outrageous”.
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