MP Margaret Ferrier urged to step down from Commons over Covid rules break

An MP who travelled while positive for Covid-19 is facing calls to stand down after pleading guilty in court.

Margaret Ferrier admitted at Glasgow Sheriff Court on Thursday that she had put people at risk by travelling on a train between London and Scotland knowing she had Covid.

Pressure is now growing on the 61-year-old MP for Rutherglen and Hamilton West to quit the Commons.

Scottish Labour MSP Neil Bibby, Scottish Labour’s transport spokesman, said she made a “catastrophic series of errors of judgments”, and added: “We need decency and standards in politics and we can’t have a position where lawmakers are lawbreakers.

“Imagine being a person in Rutherglen and Hamilton West who needs help from their MP with Covid. It might be a family member of someone who died in a care home, would you be comfortable seeking support from Margaret Ferrier? I really don’t think you would.

“We need to bring this sorry episode to an end and the quicker Margaret Ferrier resigns, the sooner the people of Rutherglen and Hamilton West, and those affected by Covid across the country, might forgive her for her actions, but if she’s just going to stick around for a pay packet and pension contributions I think people will be very angry about that.”

Mr Bibby also called on Ms Ferrier’s former boss: First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, to step in and call for her to stand down.

When news of Ms Ferrier’s offence broke, the First Minister said her actions were “utterly inexcusable”, before telling journalists she had made it “crystal clear” to the MP she should resign her seat.

He told BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme on Friday: “Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP should do two things today. Nicola Sturgeon should call Margaret Ferrier – she’s referred to her as a friend – and she should tell her in no uncertain terms to stand down, and it’s in Margaret Ferrier’s interest to do so as much as anyone else’s.

“She should also ensure that her party membership is permanently removed to make it clear there is no route back for her.”

Ferrier, of Cambuslang, had the SNP whip removed in 2020 after the allegations emerged and she now serves as an independent MP in Westminster.

The court heard Ferrier travelled in and around Glasgow and to London in September 2020 having been tested for the virus.

While awaiting the results, she spoke in the Commons and visited elsewhere in London.

She then took the train home to Glasgow after being told she had tested positive for Covid-19.

Ferrier admitted she had culpably and recklessly exposed the public “to the risk of infection, illness and death”.

Sentencing was deferred pending legal reports until September.