Ash Regan hit with Holyrood suspension ahead of crunch prostitution bill vote
Ash Regan’s prostitution legislation is set for its first Holyrood vote next week.
An MSP has been suspended for two days after breaching Holyrood’s code - amid fears it will hinder her preparing her prostitution legislation for a crunch vote next week.
Former SNP and Alba MSP, Ash Regan, who now sits as an independent, made public her plans to make a complaint about Green MSP Maggie Chapman, which is against the rules.
Ms Regan had taken issue with the Green MSP’s characterisation of last year’s UK Supreme Court decision on sex and gender as a “political attack” and wrote to Presiding Officer Alison Johnstone in protest before posting the letter on X, falling foul of the code.
Ms Regan’s defence hinged on her not following through with her complaint, despite her post of X stating she had “formally reported” Ms Chapman to the Presiding Officer and the Standards Committee.
MSPs overwhelmingly voted 84 to 18 to press ahead with the two-day suspension, which will be enforced on Wednesday and Thursday of this week.
Ms Regan’s Prostitution (Offences and Support) (Scotland) Bill is scheduled to be put for its first vote next Thursday and she has warned the suspension will hinder her preparations for the crunch debate and vote.
Speaking at Holyrood, Mr Regan said the standards watchdog “pursued a complaint about me making a complaint that they never actually received as I never actually made the complaint”.
She added: “The logic appears to be that publicising anything loosely interpreted as the intention to complain would then impact a potential investigation, despite that clearly never commencing because there was no complaint in order to trigger one.”
Ms Regan suggested that complaints have been lodged against her in order to scupper her prostitution bill.
She said: “This is not the first complaint against me since I lodged the consultation on my unbuyable bill.
“This process has been ongoing for over seven months now and concludes with a proposed sanction just as I prepare for a critical stage one and vote which was supposed to be next week.”
But convener of Holyrood’s standards, procedures and public appointments committee, Martin Whitfield, said the committee was “not persuaded” as argued by Ms Regan “that she did not intend to make a complaint”, with her letter including phrases such as she was “formally raising concerns”.
Mr Whitfield said Ms Regan’s actions were “sufficiently serious” for the two-day suspension, adding that the committee found this punishment “proportionate”.
He added: “The committee also considers that the period of exclusion would not be detrimental to the parliament’s opportunity to consider the general principles of the member’s bill.”
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