SNP Disabled Members 'gobsmacked' by leaked 'independence closer to my heart' email from Alyn Smith

The statement from the disabled members group said the concerns raised by Mr Smith were “absurd and deeply concerning”.

A row has broken out over a leaked email from SNP MP Alyn Smith

The SNP’s disabled members group has hit back against a SNP MP who had called on equalities groups removed from the party’s ruling group in order to focus on independence.

The email, revealed in The Scottish Sun, saw the Stirling SNP MP Alyn Smith criticise the size of the SNP’s national executive committee and call for a cull on the number of equalities groups represented on the ruling body.

In the email, Mr Smith said: “as a gay man equalities are close to my heart, but not as close as independence”.

A row has broken out over a leaked email from SNP MP Alyn Smith

On Saturday, the disabled members group of the SNP released a statement demanding an apology and saying they “struggle to believe” a senior member of the party “could ever conceive that independence alone is more important” that an equal society.

They said: “Our disabled members have fought hard to have our voices heard and to take our seat at the decision making table...which is why it’s fair to say we were gobsmacked to read the leaked document.

"The idea that ‘unwieldy’ and ‘unfocused’ meetings are the fault of disabled members and other protected characteristic group representatives is absurd and deeply concerning.

“We therefore must insist that the National Policy Convener makes a formal, public apology.

"The lack of good governance, respect for the repeated decisions of Conference, the understanding of the importance of equal representation and disregard for party policy demonstrated in this letter is deeply offensive and unbecoming of someone in any position in the party, especially such a senior one.”

Mr Smith had called for the creation of an ‘equalities forum’ and reduce the number of NEC members in his original email, sent to business convener Kirsten Oswald MP and the SNP’s national secretary Angus MacLeod.

The proposals would see the number of NEC members drop by 24 from 42 to 18 seats.

He said: “The Equalities 'brief' has expanded to by my count almost a dozen representing one strand or another of their interpretation of the Equalities agenda. This is of course important, as a gay man equalities are close to my heart, but not as close as independence.

"I am not alone in thinking that too much of the party's oxygen has been taken up by discussion of peripheral issues like GRA reform, with a small but vocal number of NEC members focussing on these peripheral issues, however worthy, to the exclusion of all else.

"This imbalance has not served that debate, the party, or the cause well and had led to pushback and resentment from the membership.”

The Scottish Sun reported Mr Smith was “furious” the email had been “leaked in this unhelpful way”.

He later tweeted: “In my 16 years elected office I have always been utterly pro Equalities.”

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