Recall election in ex-SNP MP Margaret Ferrier's Rutherglen and Hamilton West seat is democracy in action – Scotsman comment

Margaret Ferrier has clung onto her job as an MP despite travelling on a train when she knew she had Covid and before vaccines were available

“This is a dreadful day for MPs and for democracy. This decision means that no MP is free from vendetta or expulsion on trumped up charges by a tiny minority who want to see him or her gone from the Commons.” Boris Johnson’s response to the Privileges Committee’s recommendation that he should be suspended for deliberately misleading MPs over the Partygate scandal was typically grandiose, self-important and, essentially, untrue.

The former Prime Minister’s suggestion that he was being expelled ignored the fact that MPs still had to approve the report’s recommendations, that a recall by-election would only be held if enough of his constituents signed a petition, and that he would have been free to stand as a candidate. Ultimately, his judges would have been the electorate. He chose to resign rather than face them.

Yesterday the benefits of the Recall of MPs Act 2015 were on display once again, with a petition gathering enough names to prompt a by-election in Rutherglen and Hamilton West, the seat of former SNP MP Margaret Ferrier, who broke the law by travelling on a train in 2020 despite knowing she had Covid. This was before the introduction of vaccines.

Prior to the Act, introduced in the aftermath of the MPs’ expenses scandal, there was no way to remove an MP unless they were jailed for more than a year. So, theoretically, our elected representatives were able to completely abandon their constituents, with no means to hold them to account. In any other job, this would be unthinkable.

Sanctioning democratically elected politicians is problematic. If they have not committed a serious crime, the only people who should be able to ‘sack’ them are their constituents and this is what recall elections allow.

Ferrier could have resigned but instead chose to cling onto her seat for nearly three years, despite admitting in court that she had exposed people to “the risk of infection, illness and death” and being given a 270-hour community payback order.

There is nothing “dreadful” about allowing voters the chance to decide whether MPs like Ferrier and Johnson still command their support. It is a democratic advance worthy of celebration.