Angus MacNeil: MP expelled from the SNP following row with chief whip

Angus MacNeil has announced his expulsion from the SNP following a row with the party’s chief whip.

MacNeil, an MP since 2005, said: “I didn’t leave the SNP – the SNP have left me.”

The MP for Na h-Eileanan an Iar, formerly the Western Isles, had the whip removed earlier this summer following a disagreement with the party’s chief whip Brendan O’Hara.

MacNeil tweeted: “The Summer of Member Expulsion has indeed come to pass. As I have been expelled as a rank & file SNP member by a ‘member conduct committee’.

“I didn’t leave the SNP – the SNP have left me. I wish they were as bothered about independence as they are about me!”

One of the SNP’s longest-serving MPs at Westminster, MacNeil has been a vocal critic of the party’s strategy for gaining independence in recent times.

Following the row with O’Hara, MacNeil said he would sit as an independent MP until at least October.

After his membership was suspended when he refused to immediately rejoin the SNP group, he released a statement, saying: “I will only seek the SNP whip again if it is clear that the SNP are pursuing independence.”

An SNP spokesperson said: “Following his decision to resign from the SNP Westminster Parliamentary Group, and therefore no longer sit as an SNP MP, the unanimous decision of the SNP's Member Conduct Committee is that a breach of the code of conduct has occurred and Angus MacNeil MP has been expelled from the Party.

“Mr MacNeil was given the opportunity to rejoin the group, and subsequently chose not to attend the hearing.”