A local campaign to end violence against women has cancelled a political debate after a backlash over the involvement of perjurer Tommy Sheridan.
The disgraced former MSP, who described female witnesses as liars during his trial, had been listed as a speaker at an event organised by Larbert High School’s White Ribbon group.
However, MSP co-panellists Monica Lennon and Angus MacDonald pulled out over the Sheridan link and the school scrapped the event on Friday.
The White Ribbon campaign (WRC) is an international movement of men and boys who are committed to working to end male violence against females.
It was formed in 1991 in response to the murder of fourteen women in Canada by Marc Lepine, who said he was “fighting feminism”.
White Ribbon Day was on November 25th and thousands of people across the UK, including MPs and MSPs, wore the emblem.
A hyper local version of the campaign exists at council-run Larbert High School, which caters for around 1500 pupils.
In a letter to parents, the school’s “white ribbon group” announced that a Question Time-style debate would take place on December 10th, with topics including Brexit, domestic abuse and education.
Three panellists were listed: Lennon, MacDonald and Sheridan, who is in Solidarity.
However, Sheridan’s invitation generated disbelief from critics who believe his past behaviour towards women should bar him from any link to a cause for women's rights
Sheridan was a Glasgow MSP for the Scottish Socialist Party in 2006 when he sued the News of the World newspaper over claims he was an adulterer and swinger.
The allegations split the SSP after Sheridan turned on senior members of the party who had criticised his handling of the allegations.
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Ahead of the defamation case, Sheridan let rip at “three female colleagues” who he claimed had “consistently sought to undermine me and discredit me”.
He added: “We are a class based socialist party. Not a gender obsessed discussion group.”
During the 2006 trial, jurors heard claims that the socialist politician had cheated on his wife and had group sex. Sheridan, who represented himself, personally cross examined a former lover whose claims were central to the case.
In one section of evidence, Sheridan put it to Katrine Trolle that she had invented claims of a sexual relations between them at the behest of a friend.
After he won the case on a majority verdict, he stepped up his attacks on three female SSP colleagues who he believed had betrayed him.
In comments to a tabloid newspaper at the time, he said: “I believe there has been a statement issued by three MSPs that they will not work with me. Not speaking to them ever again will not keep me up at night.
"But if those individuals have declared they'll no longer work with me politically, they stand exposed as political blackmailers trying to hold their party to ransom."
However, police uncovered evidence Sheridan had lied during the defamation case about visiting a swingers' club in Manchester and he faced perjury charges at the High Court in Glasgow in 2010.
Facing Trolle again, he accused her of being a "conscious liar" who made up stories about him.
“You and whoever you were working with from the News of the World made up the house visit stories and the sex with me within weeks of meeting, a threesome within a month to lend weight to the swingers' yarn. Isn't that the case?” he said in court.
He also accused another woman he was alleged to have slept with, Anvar Khan, of being a “cunning liar”. A jury convicted Sheridan of perjury and he was sentenced to three years in prison.
An SNP spokesperson said: “Angus won't be attending if Tommy Sheridan is on the panel.” Lennon is understood to have pulled out over Sheridan’s involvement.
A spokesman for the school said: “Unfortunately, we have taken the decision to cancel our annual Question Time event, organised by our pupils, due to a number of last minute difficulties.”
Scottish Greens MSP Ross Greer said: “Tackling violence against women is probably best achieved without hearing the thoughts of men who’ve famously put the women closest to them through years of hell and humiliation for nothing other than their own ego.”
A spokesman for the Scottish Conservatives said: “Tommy Sheridan was a bizarre choice, and it’s no wonder others pulled out as a result. It seems he was selected because someone was fond of his politics, rather than admiring his track record on this issue.”
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