Margaret Ferrier: MP who travelled on train with COVID facing by-election after suspension recommended
An MP who travelled by train with COVID in the early stages of the pandemic is facing a 30-day suspension from the House of Commons – raising the possibility of a by-election.
Margaret Ferrier was found by the standard’s watchdog to have damaged parliament’s reputation and put people at risk by failing to self-isolate while suffering from the virus in September 2020.
The Rutherglen and Hamilton West MP has already been ordered to complete 270 hours of community service after admitting recklessly exposing the public “to the risk of infection, illness and death” as a result of her behaviour.
Politics live: Chancellor aims dig at Biden as green energy plan revealed
The former SNP politician was kicked out of her parliamentary party when the allegations emerged but resisted pressure to resign – and now sits as an independent.
Parliament’s standards committee launched an investigation when criminal proceedings finished and today recommended she be suspended from the Commons for 30 days.
The same sanction was recommended for Tory MP Owen Paterson after he was found to have broken lobbying rules – but he resigned in the wake of a scandal which saw Conservative MPs try to save him from the punishment.
Under the rules, any suspension of 10 days or more can trigger the Recall of MPs Act which means that if 10% of an MP’s constituents sign a petition, a by-election shall be held.
However, MPs must vote to back the suspension.
If they do, Ms Ferrier has the option to appeal the ruling or resign – with a by-election also triggered in the case of the latter.
A train journey with big electoral consequences
Margaret Ferrier, the MP for Rutherglen and West Hamilton, got a cough on the afternoon of Saturday 26 September 2020 – setting off a chain of events with possible consequences for all three major parties.
As is now well-known, she travelled to London and spoke in parliament; and after receiving a positive result, got the train back to Glasgow in defiance of the restrictions in place at the time that she should immediately isolate.
Ms Ferrier had the whip withdrawn by the Scottish National Party and was convicted in court for recklessly exposing the public to COVID, being sentenced to 270 hours of community service.
Already unable to stand for the SNP at the next election, now her political career may come to an even faster end as the Commons Standards Committee recommends a 30-day suspension.
This is at the higher end, in recognition of two serious breaches of the Members Code of Conduct they identify, and if agreed by a majority of MPs in a vote, she faces an automatic recall petition and a by-election.
For the SNP, this is hardly the news that new First Minister Humza Yousaf would want on his second day in the job as – pending the petition and any appeal by Ms Ferrier – sets the stage for a competitive by-election.
Her seat is one of the few that Labour briefly regained in 2017 following their post-referendum wipe-out in Scotland.
A Scottish Labour source says: “This is a seat that we can win. There will likely be panic stations in SNP HQ.”
It will certainly be an interesting test of Labour’s chances ahead of 2024, in which a recovery north of the border will likely be key to whether the party will do as well nationally as the polls currently suggest.
‘Panic stations in SNP HQ’
Labour’s shadow Scottish secretary Ian Murray said she should “do the right thing and stand down as an MP”.
Any contest at the polls would be seen as a test for Scotland’s new First Minister Humza Yousaf, with Labour eyeing an opportunity to make in-roads in the wake of Nicola Sturgeon’s sudden resignation.
On the prospect of a by-election, a Labour source said: “This is a seat that we can win. There will likely be panic stations in SNP HQ.”
But Mr Yousaf said: “There should be a by-election. We’ve said from day one that Margaret Ferrier should have stepped down, of course, because of her reckless actions.
“We look forward to fighting that by-election and our strong track record but we won’t take anything for granted, we won’t be complacent.
“It will take hard work but it is the right thing for her to do, to stand down.”
The MPs on the standards committee are the same group that will adjudicate on whether Boris Johnson deliberately misled parliament over partygate.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Sky’s Beth Rigby looks back on the day when Boris Johnson was in the spotlight over partygate.
Ms Ferrier developed COVID symptoms on Saturday 26 September 2020 and after taking a test, still went to church and had lunch with a family member the following day.
On the Monday, while awaiting the result of the test, she travelled by train to London, took part in a Commons debate and ate in the Members’ Tearoom in parliament.
That evening she received a text telling her the test was positive but instead of isolating, she travelled back to Scotland by train the following morning.
Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards Daniel Greenberg said Ms Ferrier had breached the code of conduct for MPs “by placing her own personal interest of not wishing to self-isolate immediately or in London over the public interest of avoiding possible risk of harm to health and life”.
She also breached the code because “her actions commencing from when she first took a Covid-19 test to when she finally began self-isolation caused significant damage to the reputation and integrity of the House of Commons as a whole, and of its members generally”.
Tom Fletcher, speaking on behalf of the United Nations, did not mince his words.
Gaza was suffering from famine, the evidence was irrefutable and Israel had not just obstructed aid but had also used hunger as a weapon of war.
His anger seeped through every sentence, just as desperation is laced through the report from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC).
Gaza latest: UK calls out Israel for ‘manmade catastrophe’
Conditions are expected to worsen, it says, even though the Gaza Strip has been classified as a level 5 famine. There is no level 6.
A child attempts to access food from a charity kitchen in Khan Younis. Pic: Reuters
But it took only moments for the Israeli government to respond in terms that were just as strident. The report dismissed as wholly inaccurate, based on biased, inaccurate data and influenced not by fact, but by the whims of Hamas.
COGAT, the Israeli agency that oversees humanitarian efforts in Gaza, claimed the IPC had ignored its data and presented a “one-sided report”, before claiming that “hundreds of truckloads of aid are still awaiting collection by the UN and international organisations”.
What is so striking is that there is no grey area between these two versions.
In one, Israel has obstructed the delivery of aid and allowed hunger to turn into famine; in the other, it is Hamas that has caused the crisis by stealing aid and exploiting hunger as a political tool to try to win global sympathy.
People in Beit Lahia take sacks of flour from an aid convoy en route to Gaza City. Pic: AP
Journalists are not allowed to enter Gaza, so we are reliant on the work of colleagues who live there.
But the images are striking – emaciated people holding begging bowls, people scrambling towards aid drops or clambering over trucks carrying bags of flour. And all around them, shattered buildings.
Aid is continuing to be dropped by air, but humanitarian groups say it is not enough. Pic: Reuters
We heard from a man in his 70s, who used to weigh 70kg, but who has lost almost half his body weight.
“Now, because of malnutrition, my weight has dropped to just 40,” Hassan Abu Seble said. “I suffered both a stroke and a heart attack. They had to put in a stent to help me recover, and I thank God that my organs are still functioning.”
The Israeli government, and many across the country, will maintain that Hamas bears the responsibility for everything that has happened to Gazans – that it was the attack on 7 October, 2023, that was the sole precipitant for the suffering, death and hunger that has followed.
But from around much of the rest of the world, the condemnation is deafening, accusing Israel of allowing famine to fester.
The body of a child is carried from the scene of an Israeli military strike in Gaza City. Pic: AP
David Lammy, Britain’s foreign secretary, said the Israeli government had caused a “man-made famine” by blocking the distribution of aid, and described that as a “moral outrage”.
The question, as so often before, is what that rhetoric leads to. And, so long as the United States doesn’t join the chorus of disapproval, does widespread global disapproval mean anything?
There is also a question now of Gaza’s future.
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
Read more from Sky News:
Israel to continue with Gaza City offensive
Famine is our ‘worst fears being realised’
Analysis: Netanyahu has a decision to make
In the Jewish quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City, we found a large sign that says “Make Gaza Jewish Again”. It is a slogan, and a sentiment, that is supported by plenty.
“Yes, of course I agree,” says one man as he walks past, carrying a large pack of drinks. It turns out that he used to live in a Jewish settlement in Gaza until it was shut by the Israeli government two decades ago, but he has never stopped believing that Gaza is rightly Israel’s property.
“The people there now – they should leave. They could go to Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt. It is our land. And yes, I would like to go back there.”
He did not believe there was a famine. “They have lots of food,” he told me.
Another man, Avraham, was more conciliatory, but insisted there had never been a country like Israel “that is fighting a war against a country but is also sending in so much humanitarian aid for the people”.
Gaza City is now the focal point of so much. Famine is spreading from this heart just as troops prepare to encircle the city. A ceasefire could come, but so could a huge military assault. And all the while, the hunger will get worse.
Approval of a huge new Chinese embassy in London has been delayed by the government over redacted areas on the embassy’s plans.
Beijing hasn’t fully explained why there are blacked-out areas in its planning application after housing minister Angela Rayner demanded an explanation earlier this month.
The government has now delayed its decision over whether construction can go ahead from 9 September to 21 October, saying it needed more time to consider the application.
The Chinese embassy in London expressed “serious concern” over the delay and said host countries have an “international obligation” to support the construction of diplomatic buildings.
“The Chinese side urges the UK side to fulfil its obligation and approve the planning application without delay,” said the embassy in a statement.
Site of planned Chinese embassy
Royal Mint Court, the site of the proposed embassy. File pic: PA
DP9, the planning consultancy working for the Chinese government, said its client felt it would be inappropriate to provide full internal layout plans.
It added that additional drawings provided an acceptable level of detail, after the government asked why several areas were blacked out.
Protests have been held outside the proposed site. File pic: Feb 2025, PA
“The Applicant considers the level of detail shown on the unredacted plans is sufficient to identify the main uses,” said DP9 in a letter to the government.
“In these circumstances, we consider it is neither necessary nor appropriate to provide additional more detailed internal layout plans or details.”
The embassy, which would be the largest in Europe, is planned for the 216-year-old site of the old Royal Mint Court next to the Tower of London.
However, opposition from local residents, lawmakers and pro-democracy campaigners means planning approval has been delayed for the past three years.
Read more from Sky News:
What Epstein’s right-hand woman says about Trump and Prince Andrew
Third arrest over sex toy throwing at women’s basketball games
Why Donald Trump believes he ‘deserves the Nobel Peace Prize’
Earlier this month, the embassy described claims that the building could have “secret facilities” used to harm Britain’s
national security as “despicable slandering”.
However, the executive director of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, which has ties to a network of politicians critical of the country, called the explanations “far from satisfactory”.
Luke de Pulford, who is a long-standing critic of the embassy plans, said the “assurances amount to ‘trust me bro'”.
A famine has been declared in Gaza City and the surrounding neighbourhoods.
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) – a globally recognised system for classifying the severity of food insecurity and malnutrition – has confirmed just four famines since it was established in 2004.
These were in Somalia in 2011, and in Sudan in 2017, 2020, and 2024.
The confirmation of famine in Gaza City is the IPC’s first outside of Africa.
“After 22 months of relentless conflict, over half a million people in the Gaza Strip are facing catastrophic conditions characterised by starvation, destitution and death,” the report said, adding that more than a million other people face a severe level of food insecurity.
Israel Gaza map
Over the next month conditions are also expected to worsen, with the famine projected to expand to Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis, the report said.
Nearly a third of the population (641,000 people) are expected to face catastrophic conditions while acute malnutrition is projected to continue getting worse rapidly.
Over the next year, the report said at least 132,000 children will suffer from acute malnutrition – double the organisation’s estimates from May 2024.
Israel says no famine in Gaza
Volker Turk, the UN Human Rights chief, said the famine is the direct result of actions taken by the Israeli government.
“It is a war crime to use starvation as method of warfare, and the resulting deaths may also amount to the war crime of wilful killing,” he said.
COGAT, the Israeli military agency that coordinates aid, has rejected the findings.
Israel’s foreign ministry said there is no famine in Gaza: “Over 100,000 trucks of aid have entered Gaza since the start of the war, and in recent weeks a massive influx of aid has flooded the Strip with staple foods and caused a sharp decline in food prices, which have plummeted in the markets.”
Another UN chief made a desperate plea to Israel’s prime minister to declare a ceasefire in the wake of the famine announcement.
Tom Fletcher, UN under-secretary general for humanitarian affairs, said famine could have been prevented in the strip if there hadn’t been a “systematic obstruction” of aid deliveries.
“My ask, my plea, my demand to Prime Minister Netanyahu and anyone who can reach him. Enough. Ceasefire. Open the crossings, north and south, all of them,” he said.
The IPC had previously warned famine was imminent in parts of Gaza, but had stopped short of a formal declaration.
Palestinians struggle to get aid at a community kitchen in Gaza City. Pic: AP
The latest report on Gaza from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says there were almost 13,000 new admissions of children for acute malnutrition recorded in July.
The latest numbers from the Gaza health ministry are 251 dead as a result of famine and malnutrition, including 108 children.
But Israel has previously accused Hamas of inflating these figures, saying that most of the children who died had pre-existing health conditions.
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Sports2 years agoButton battles heat exhaustion in NASCAR debut
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment11 months agoHere are the best electric bikes you can buy at every price level in October 2024