AN SNP MP has angrily denied falling asleep in the Commons chamber while one of her colleagues made a speech about Brexit.
Patricia Gibson said she had received “vicious abuse” on social media after a tabloid newspaper ran a story on Saturday titled “Nat caught napping”.
It said the North Ayrshire & Arran MP had appeared to “doze off” the previous Wednesday evening as she tilted her head back open-mouthed.
Ms Gibson tweeted that she had been “caught on camera supplicating the heavens to stop hard Brexiteer Bill Cash MP from speaking for any longer”.
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However Tommy Sheppard, the SNP MP for Edinburgh East, was speaking at the time.
She subsequently claimed she was “appealing to the heavens because of hard Brexiteer chuntering in the chamber”.
Parliament TV footage showed Ms Gibson rubbing her eyes but not sleeping during Mr Sheppard’s speech.
Writing on her website on Monday, Ms Gibson insisted she had been awake and been “subject to a huge amount of personal abuse” because of an “ugly smear” and irresponsible reporting.
She also posted a “small sample of the abuse I have had thrown at me over the weekend”.
It included “lazy bitch”, a “lazy idle b******”, lazy cow, and scum.
Ms Gibson also published an email she said she sent to the author of the tabloid story, criticising them for not contacting her before publication.
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She wrote: “At a time when MP’s (sic) security is being stepped up, when many of us are receiving death threats, the additional hatred you have whipped up against me personally is both irresponsible and unforgivable.
"For you to deliberately attempt to undermine and misrepresent any politician simply because you disagree with them may be fashionable but it is not professional.”
Ms Gibson, who has been an MP since 2015, said on Twitter on Monday that she had not received a response and would refer the matter to the Press Complaints Commission.
The Press Complaints Commission was closed in 2014, and replaced by the Independent Press Standards Organisation (Ipso).
The newspaper declined to comment.
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