AN SNP member who allegedly sent Scottish Conservative Party leader Ruth Davidson homophobic abuse has been suspended by the party, pending an investigation.

Marc Hughes is said to have tweeted the Tory leader using homophobic, abusive language under the username SparkyBhoyHH. The Scottish Tory leader responded: “Nice. Classy. Do you kiss your mother with that mouth? Bet she’s really proud of you...”.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon was quick to condemn the tweets. During First Minister’s Question Time, Sturgeon confirmed that the SNP had taken action: “Can I take the opportunity to condemn unreservedly the vile homophobic abuse that was being directed at Ruth Davidson on Twitter last night and this morning.

“The individual in question in that case has been identified and this morning suspended from membership of the SNP pending full disciplinary processes.”

Hughes was unrepentant on Twitter at first and defended his actions. However, after shutting his first Twitter account down, a second account under the name _FoolHardy_ said that he had phoned and spoken to Ruth Davidson and personally apologised to her. That account was also later closed down.

In a statement, Davidson thanked those who had offered their support.

“I’m not the only politician who gets abuse online,” Davidson said.

“I’ve previously condemned those who have racially abused Humza Yousaf as well as the torrents of sexism and misogyny aimed at the First Minister.

“A significant proportion of the abuse I receive is homophobic, and I make a point of calling out a selection of such tweets every few weeks.” Davidson said.

She added: “It is heartening to me that so many people online agree that challenging someone’s politics is healthy but abusing them for their race, colour, gender, sexuality or other area of themselves is unacceptable.”

Gay, bisexual and transgender rights group Stonewall Scotland said there was still a major problem with homophobic bullying in Scotland, especially in Scotland’s schools.

Colin Macfarlane, the organisation’s director, said: “We welcome the First Minister’s strong condemnation of the homophobic abuse aimed at Ruth Davidson MSP online and the SNP’s decision to suspend the party member pending an investigation.

“The vile and offensive language aimed at Ms Davidson is unacceptable. Sadly, our research shows this kind of abuse happens every day to lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people, not only online but in our playgrounds, our workplaces, on our streets and in our wider community.”

Research carried out by the group shows that 99% of young people hear some form of homophobic language every day at school. 75 per cent of primary school teachers and 44% of secondary school teachers told the survey that they have been told they can’t discuss LGBT issues in classrooms.

McFarlane continued: “When 216,000 Scots report that they have witnessed verbal and physical homophobic bullying at work and one in six LGBT people say they have experienced poor treatment accessing public services simply because of their sexual orientation or gender identity we know there is still lots to do before we can say LGBT people are truly equal in Scotland.”

Although reported hate crimes against gay, bisexual and transgender people in Scotland rose by 22% last year, Stonewall believe this is due to more people coming forward to report the crimes rather than an actual increase in crime. Although both Stonewall and the Equality Network pointed out that under-reporting of hate crimes was still an issue.

Superintendent Ross Aitken from Police Scotland’s Safer Communities Department said: “If someone feels they have been the victim of a crime which is motivated by malice or ill will because of their actual or presumed sexual orientation, gender identity, faith, ethnicity or disability, they should report it to the police.

“We take all such reports very seriously and will conduct thorough investigations to ensure perpetrators are brought to justice.”