Scottish lawmaker removed, triggering electoral test for Labour

LONDON (Reuters) – A Scottish lawmaker has been stripped of her seat in Britain’s parliament after breaking COVID rules, triggering a by-election that will indicate whether the opposition Labour Party is recovering support from Scotland’s dominant nationalist party.

Margaret Ferrier is a former lawmaker for the Scottish National Party (SNP) who represented Rutherglen and Hamilton West. She was one of a wave of nationalist politicians who swept Labour from its one-time Scottish stronghold in 2015.

The parliamentary by-election will show whether Labour is now able to win again in Scotland, where it needs to recapture some of its former dominance if it is to return to government in a national election expected next year.

Labour lost all but one of its Scottish seats in 2015 to the SNP, as the nationalists retained support of pro-independence voters in the aftermath of a 2014 referendum where Scots voted to stay part of the United Kingdom by 55% to 45%.

It had struggled to make much headway since, though Ferrier had lost to Labour in 2017 before she regained the seat in 2019.

Now Labour is projected to win the most seats in Scotland for the first time since 2010, a poll found in June, amid turmoil in the SNP around the resignation of long-time leader Nicola Sturgeon and a police probe into its finances.

The SNP won in Rutherglen and Hamilton West with a 5,230 majority in 2019. The governing Conservatives are competitive in other parts of Scotland but came a distant third in the seat, meaning the vote is likely to provide more of an insight into Labour’s fortunes than those of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s party.

The fresh vote comes after a row over Ferrier’s breach of coronavirus lockdown rules.

She tested positive for COVID-19 in September 2020 after speaking in Britain’s House of Commons. Instead of isolating as was mandatory at the time, she took a train more than 400 miles back to Scotland.

Ferrier was suspended from her party and had since been sitting as an independent. She apologised for what she called “an error in judgment”, but resisted calls to resign.

In March parliament’s standards committee recommended a 30-day suspension from the House of Commons, setting in motion the process of a recall petition, which can remove a lawmaker if 10% or more of registered electors sign a petition.

(Reporting by Alistair Smout; Editing by Kate Holton)