Margaret Ferrier: Police investigate SNP MP who travelled with coronavirus

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Police have launched an investigation into an MP who travelled hundreds of miles across the UK after she tested positive for coronavirus.  

Margaret Ferrier has been suspended by the Scottish National Party but has so far ignored calls for her to resign as an MP.

The MP for Rutherglen and Hamilton West travelled between Glasgow and London twice while suffering from coronavirus symptoms, the second time after she was told she had Covid-19.

Her own party leader Nicola Sturgeon was among those who led calls for her to stand down after the clear breach of the coronavirus rules.

But Ms Ferrier has made no statement since her confession that she made the five-hour train journey twice while carrying the virus.

Senior SNP sources believe she could face the wrath of her constituents in a recall vote if she does not stand down.

Alongside her travels to and from the Commons, social media posts from last Saturday afternoon, when the MP said she had first exhibited symptoms, place her across businesses in her constituency.

Among them were a visit to a Burnside gift shop, a gym and a salon which she said she had “popped into” to wish the team well.

The MP has since referred herself to the Commons standards commissioner, who can trigger a process known as a "recall” vote if she suspends Ms Ferrier from the house for more than 10 days.

Under the recall rules a by-election can be then called if more than a tenth of the voters in Ms Ferrier’s constituency sign a petition.

As she sought to head off looming public outrage, Ms Ferrier also voluntarily referred herself to police, who have now launched an investigation into reported breaches of coronavirus regulations.

In a statement, the Metropolitan Police said: "Following consultation with Police Scotland, officers from the Metropolitan Police, working with British Transport Police, are conducting an investigation into potential offences.”

One MP is self-isolating after he came into close contact with Ms Ferrier while she was in Westminster.

Despite her symptoms, the MP spoke in a debate in the chamber during which she praised NHS staff at the front line of fighting the global pandemic.

Jim Shannon, the 65-year-old DUP MP for Strangford, sat near Ms Ferrier on Monday evening at the same dining table in the  Commons.   

He has since been tested for Covid-19 and received a negative result but is self-isolating at home as a precaution, his party said.

Ms Sturgeon, the first minister of Scotland, said she was “very angry” at the MP’s conduct and had made clear to Ms Ferrier “my view that she should step down as an MP”.

Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross branded the decision to twice travel by train with coronavirus symptoms "reckless and dangerous".

Ian Murray, shadow Scotland secretary, urged the SNP to "come clean'' over what it knew and when about Ms Ferrier's illness.

As calls grew for the MP to resign, the Commons speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle said that “different stories” had made it more difficult for parliamentary authorities to limit a possible outbreak.