MP Angus MacNeil has been expelled from the SNP after he was suspended from its Westminster group last month.
The Na h-Eileanan an Iar (Western Isles) MP had been suspended after reportedly clashing with party chief whip Brendan O’Hara.
The SNP conduct committee met on Thursday after he refused to rejoin the group at the end of his suspension.
The party confirmed that Mr MacNeil was expelled after a breach of their code of conduct.
Mr MacNeil said he would stand as an independent candidate at the next general election.
The MP wrote in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter: “The Summer of Member Expulsion, has indeed come to pass, as I have been expelled as a rank & file SNP member by a ‘member conduct committee.'”
“I didn’t leave the SNP – the SNP have left me,” he added. “I wish they were as bothered about independence as they are about me!”
He also tweeted a kangaroo emoji in an apparent reference to the conduct committee.
He was one of the SNP’s longest-serving MPs, having first been elected in 2005, but has been a vocal critic of the party leadership in recent years, particularly over its independence strategy.
He was involved in a row with chief whip Mr O’Hara in July over missing votes in the House of Commons.
It was alleged he had threatened Mr O’Hara during a confrontation – an allegation Mr MacNeil denies – and he had the whip removed for a week.
Leadership attack
Following the falling-out, he announced he would sit as an independent MP until at least October.
His membership of the party was suspended as he refused to immediately rejoin the SNP group.
He then released a statement attacking the SNP leadership’s approach to independence, accusing it of a lack of urgency. “I will only seek the SNP whip again if it is clear that the SNP are pursuing independence,” he wrote.
An SNP spokesperson said: “Following his decision to resign from the SNP Westminster Parliamentary Group, and therefore no longer sit as an SNP MP, the unanimous decision of the SNP’s Member Conduct Committee is that a breach of the code of conduct has occurred and Angus MacNeil MP has been expelled from the Party.
“Mr MacNeil was given the opportunity to rejoin the group, and subsequently chose not to attend the hearing.”
This saga brings to an end Angus MacNeil’s 18-year SNP representation of the Western Isles at Westminster.
A colourful character and well-liked across the political divide, he’s not made any secret of his frustrations about the party’s independence strategy. Things have now come to a head.
Mr MacNeil will stand as an independent candidate at the next general election, after a year languishing on the green benches as an independent.
This will cause another headache in the constituency for the SNP – possibly splitting the pro-independence vote against a Labour candidate that is said to be liked and respected locally. He is Torcuil Crichton, the Daily Record’s former Westminster editor.
More fundamentally for SNP leader Humza Yousaf, this expulsion further tears open divides in the party that had been almost masked under the Sturgeon leadership.
The SNP already faces a by-election following the recall of Rutherglen MP, Margaret Ferrier
Furthermore, Mr Yousaf could face internal dissent at SNP conference in October. We’ve already heard this week rumblings against the SNP’s deal with the Greens.
Angus MacNeil is said to have been an SNP member for almost 30 years. For the first time in a generation, he will not be able to attend the conference now he’s been expelled from the party.
