MSPs to vote on double jobbing ban amid row over Stephen Flynn's Scottish Parliament bid

Holyrood could vote to ban MSPs sitting as MPs as soon as Christmas following a row over double jobbing.

It comes after SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn announced his intention to run for the Scottish Parliament in 2026 while continuing as an MP.

The move sparked an internal party backlash, not least because it would involve ousting one of his own party colleagues in Holyrood.

Now Tory MSP Graham Simpson has said he will resubmit an amendment to elections legislation to ban “dual mandates”. Under his proposal, all MPs elected to Holyrood would need to stand down from Westminster within eight days.

Stephen Flynn | PA

Mr Simpson previously planned to table the amendment to the Scottish Elections (Representation and Reform) Bill, but withdrew it after SNP ministers offered a consultation on the matter.

He told the Daily Record: “Being an MSP is a full-time job and anyone lucky enough to have the honour of being elected to the Scottish Parliament should be doing so on that basis.

“Given the outcry over what Stephen Flynn plans to do, I will be re-tabling my amendments to the Elections Bill, which will ban double jobbing. All parties must do the right thing and back this.”

Mr Simpson said Scotland was an outlier in the UK as dual mandates were already banned in Wales and Northern Ireland.

Scottish Labour has said it will back the ban on double jobbing, as have the Greens. Labour’s Martin Whitfield said: "Being an MP or an MSP is a full-time job and it is the height of arrogance to try and do both.”

Mr Flynn set off a political firestorm inside his own party when he announced he was seeking the candidacy in the Aberdeen South and North Kincardine seat, which overlaps with part of his Westminster constituency, but is held by Audrey Nicoll.

Asked on the BBC’s Sunday Show about the reaction, Mr Flynn said: “There’s always going to be a strong reaction to someone seeking to do things differently, I’ve experienced this before in politics.

“It’s not something which is particularly pleasant, it’s not something which is particularly comfortable, particularly when you’re dealing with people who you know really well. You’re dealing with, in my case, a colleague who overlaps almost entirely with the constituency that I currently represent at Westminster.

“This is not a pleasant situation for either of us. All I’m seeking to do is ask the members who vote for us, who ultimately decide who their candidate is going to be, to make a decision.”

The SNP has been critical in recent years of dual mandates, where a single person sits in both Westminster and Holyrood, and regularly attacked former Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross when he did so.

The party even changed internal rules ahead of the 2021 election to ensure MPs seeking election would have to quit before they would be allowed to run. This was widely seen as an attempt to prevent then-Edinburgh South West MP and frequent internal party critic Joanna Cherry from standing.

The party’s ruling body – the National Executive Committee (NEC) – could decide to scrap the rule for contests ahead of 2026. But if not, Mr Flynn said he would continue his work as an MP and campaigning for Scottish independence “from the bench or from the stands”.

Mr Flynn has been seen as a potential future leader of the party, but insisted his attempt to run for Holyrood was not to further his own ambitions.

“I’m ambitious, I’m seriously ambitious for Aberdeen and for Scotland,” he said. “I don’t believe that there’s going to be a leadership contest in the Scottish National Party for a long, long time.

“Because John Swinney is going to win the Scottish Parliament elections in 2026, he’s going to continue as First Minister and should there be a future leadership election it will be in the dim and distant future.”