Scottish Labour has launched a petiton calling for shamed MP Margaret Ferrier to resign.
It has been almost a week since the revelatons emerged about the former SNP MP, who travelled to and from Glasgow while suffering coronavirus symptoms.
Ms Ferrier also travelled back on a train from London while knwoingly carrying the virus.
Her conduct has been roundly condemned, by her own party leader First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, senior Holyrood figures, the public, her MP colleagues and the speaker of the House fo Commons Sir Lindsay Hoyle.
The Rutherglen and Hamilton West MP, however, has stayed silent on the scandal since she released a statement on social media last Thursday admitting what she had done.
Now Richard Leonard, Scottish Labour leader, has launched a petition calling for her to resign.
UK Labour lader Sir Keir Starmer will also be speaking to constituents in the MP's area today via an online Call keir event.
Mr Leonard said: "It is truly breath taking that Margaret Ferrier remains an MP nearly a week after the utterly shocking facts about her making long distance train journeys while infected by Covid became public
“Margaret Ferrier is clearly putting her parliamentary salary and access to Westminster perks above the needs of the people of Rutherglen and Hamilton West, who deserve a strong voice at a time when the virus is surging and jobs and living standards are facing such a grave threat.
“Margaret Ferrier has let down her constituents and is now seeking to tough it out solely in her own interests, in the hope that she will be able to cling on.
"Even now more details are emerging about the reckless behaviour from Margaret Ferrier, with reports about her attending a church service after showing symptoms of Covid.
“As Scottish Labour leader, I will not tolerate a situation where a community that has already been let down, is left voiceless by a lame duck MP, who has betrayed the people she was elected to represent after she was elected on an SNP platform less than a year ago.
“Scottish Labour will continue to highlight the outrage of Margaret Ferrier continuing to sit as an MP, with the right vote on laws, that she has brazenly flouted, but which the key workers and families in her constituency have to abide by.
“Rutherglen and Hamilton West deserves better and Margaret Ferrier must resign immediately.”
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