MOVES are under way to organise a Holyrood walk-out in protest against the continuing presence of shamed politician Bill Walker at the Scottish Parliament, the Sunday Herald can reveal.
A well-known MSP – who as yet does not wish to be named – is considering direct action if Walker, said to be guilty of violence against children and three former wives, does not stand down from Holyrood. He also faces a rape allegation.
Elected last year as the SNP member for Dunfermline, Walker was expelled from the party earlier this month following an investigation by this newspaper into his treatment of his ex-spouses.
Now an "Independent Nationalist", the 70-year-old has said he intends to appeal the expulsion and remain at Holyrood.
However, a prominent MSP, who has been critical of Walker, says his position is untenable.
"In the long run, if he sits back, takes the money and doesn't do a proper job, then action has to be taken," he said. "The current situation of MSPs not being able to be removed cannot continue. A walk-out of the Parliament is an option."
The MSP said there was "discomfort" across the political divide about the possibility of Walker sitting it out for another four years. "I have spoken to other members who are very unhappy about all of this," he said.
The reputation of Walker, who doubles as a Fife councillor, had already been tarnished at Holyrood last year by his likening a gay rights campaign logo to "pre-war Nazi-type stuff". Last month he instantly became a pariah after his violent past was exposed.
His ex-wives allege he was violent towards them throughout their marriages, which ran from the 1960s to the 1990s, with claims of punches, kicks, slaps and beating with a metal coat-hanger.
Court documents also show that Walker admitted hitting a teenage former step-daughter over the head with a saucepan, as well as smacking the young son of a then-girlfriend.
In a 1990 court dispute over child maintenance, Lord Clyde accused him of "deception" by hiding his wealth, while in a separate ruling another judge called him a "tyrant in his own home".
In a newspaper article last week, Walker's son Douglas described the MSP as "barely a human being" and called his father a "liar who believed his own lies".
He added: "He is nothing to me. Just a bastard of the highest order whose name happens to be on my birth certificate."
After the allegations were revealed, Fife constabulary launched a probe, which includes a focus on a historical rape allegation against Walker.
If Walker carries on for the rest of the parliamentary term, until 2016, he stands to collect around £250,000 in salary and severance pay.
The SNP expelled him for failing to disclose the allegations during the candidate process.
Walker has three weeks to deliver the paperwork for his appeal.
The Sunday Herald also revealed last week that a former relative of Walker's third wife presented damning information about him to the constituency office of deputy SNP leader, Nicola Sturgeon, in February 2008.
Despite the warning being then passed to SNP headquarters, he was selected as the party's candidate for Dunfermline.
A spokesman for Scottish Labour said: "Scotland enjoys a very strong cross-party stance against domestic abuse, and it will be important to combine that with the duty of other MSPs to do their job. At the end of the day, the person who shouldn't be in the debating chamber is Mr Walker."
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