THE SNP has condemned the failure of every other party to attend Westminster’s Scottish Affairs Committee as it held an inquiry into immigration.
The Nationalists said it “spoke volumes” about the priorities of Labour, the Conservatives Tories and LibDems after not one of their MPs went to a special session in Kirkcaldy.
Four Conservatives, a LibDem and three Labour members missed the event, leaving SNP chair Pete Wishart and MPs Tommy Sheppard and Deidre Brock to question witnesses.
Those absent were Tories David Duguid, John Lamont, Paul Masterton and Ross Thomson, Labour’s Hugh Gaffney, Ged Killen and Danielle Rowley, and LibDem Christine Jardine.
The session, gathering evidence on how Brexit would affect migrants, heard from the Fife Migrant Forum, the National Farmers Union, Cosla, and Highlands & Islands Enterprise.
Ms Brock said: “This was an important meeting and the failure of MPs from the Scottish Tories, Labour and Lib Dems to even show up speaks volumes about their priorities.
“I appreciate MPs face diary constraints, but Brexit is the biggest issue facing Scotland, and poses a huge risk to the Scottish economy.
“We heard from people who have come to Scotland to work, live and contribute to our society, and the human impact the UK government’s Brexit chaos is having. These committee hearings are important to inform our work.”
Ms Jardine said: "I was disappointed to miss the meeting which is one of a series I have attended around Scotland, but unfortunately I had other constituency and Westminster related issues."
A Labour spokesperson said: "The Scottish Labour members of the Scottish Affairs Committee were unable to attend a hearing in Kirkcaldy due to diary commitments and Parliamentary business.
“This is a long-running inquiry. There have been five previous sessions on immigration and Scottish Labour members have been fully engaged in the work of the committee.
"It is disappointing that once again the SNP has taken such a partisan approach by seeking to score political points, when the spirit of this committee is to work in partnership for the interests of the people of Scotland.”
The Tories did not respond to a request for comment.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel