FORMER Secretary of State for Scotland, David Mundell has told MPs of the interest taken by the Queen in the so-called ‘buttockgate’ row of 2015 involving the SNP and firebrand Labour politician Dennis Skinner.

Speaking in the Commons debate to mark the passing of the monarch, the MP for Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale & Tweeddale said it showed her interest in “what was happening in Parliament and the day-to-day events.” 

The stooshie over seating was sparked after the SNP won 56 seats at the general election, ending Labour’s hegemony in Scotland and reducing them to just one Scottish MP.

As the third largest party in the Commons, they expected to secure a prime spot on the green benches. 

While the front bench opposite the despatch box is, by convention, reserved for the official opposition, the neighbouring front pews have in the past been taken up by the third party. 

However, after the Tories and LibDem entered a coalition following the 2010 election, Mr Skinner, the veteran Labour backbencher, took up the prized seat.

He was reluctant to give it up after the 2015 vote.

To secure the seat, the SNP had to arrange a rota of MPs to guard it for the then Westminster leader Angus Robertson. 

Mr Mundell told MPs the Queen was aware of the clash, as she was “somebody who was extremely well informed about everything that was going on in politics,”

He said: “In my first substantive conversation with her as secretary of state there had been a major incident in Parliament when rather more members of the Scottish National Party had been elected in 2015 than might have been anticipated, and there was a little bit of conflict about who should sit on the bench opposite.

“And then member for Bolsover and some other Labour members were not so keen on SNP members occupying those positions. 

“So the Queen was very familiar with this situation and sought to interrogate me on the rights and wrongs of the issue. 

“And I find myself blurting out ‘oh your majesty, that's buttockgate.' 

“And I thought in my first meeting with the queen, I have said the word buttock. What is to happen?

“But rather than me be taken off to the Tower or to some other place, the Queen just laughed. She found it all very amusing. But also she was interested in what was happening in Parliament and the day-to-day events.”

Mr Mundell also read out an article from The Herald in October 1956, referencing a visit by the monarch to Biggar. 

It was her first time in the South Lanarkshire town as previous Royal trips had missed it out. 

As this paper observed: “A thoughtful gesture by Her Majesty added 90 minutes in time and 35 miles in distance to her programme.

"Biggar, the only county town omitted from recent royal tours, was given a 10-minute call at the start” of an itinerary that included Lanarkshire and Dumfriesshire. 

The people of Biggar “responded by giving the Queen a rapturous reception in the tree-girt High Street.” 

Mr Mundell was then followed by Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland, Ian Murray who said it was a "great pleasure to follow the right honourable gentleman's buttocks."

He described the Queen as the “mother, grandmother and great grandmother to the nation.”

Mr Murray told MPs: “The Queen loved Scotland and Scotland loved the Queen. 

“The ties between Scotland and our longest reigning Monarch are plentiful.

"From her very first public speech as a young princess in Aberdeen, at the opening of the British Sailor Society, and the yarn of her wedding dress being woven in Scotland, to her royal yacht Britannia being built on the Clyde and retired to the Forth, to the opening of the first Forth bridge and the second one 53 years later, and she always looked forward to the royal week in Edinburgh each year.”

He said she “transcended every generation, all the way to my two-year-old daughter, who now knows who that was drinking tea with Paddington. I've yet to explain to Zola that Paddington’s friend has passed away over.”

Kirsten Oswald, the SNP’s deputy leader in Westminster, talked of her childhood in Angus, growing up near Glamis. 

She told MPs: “ I'll always remember the great regard my gran had for the Queen.

"She always followed the Queen's movements with great interest.

"They shared a birthday, and this was seen to her to be very significant, and she was very pleased to get herself into the situation where she attended a number of royal visits.”

Ms Oswald added: “I think that for all of her public presence and for all of her influence, it's obvious that most of all she will be missed by her family. 

“And I hope that in time they're able also to take some comfort, perhaps by looking back on a life that was well lived and reflecting on the memories that people across the world will have shared. 

“I'm sure we all know from our own lives that very deep sense of grief and loss that the king and the royal family will be experiencing just now.”