CONSERVATIVE MSP Annie Wells faces being suspended from Holyrood for five days after being found guilty of commenting to the press on an unpublished Parliamentary report that she insists she did not leak.
Members of the Scottish Parliament’s Standards Committee yesterday unanimously agreed sanctions should be imposed on her after they heard a complaint from an SNP MSP that Wells had “sought political advantage” by making comments on a report before it was published.
Wells was quoted in the Daily Mail about the report on giving prisoners the right to vote two days before the report was formally published. She has denied being the source of the story.
The ban still has to be approved by MSPs in a vote in Parliament, but it is unheard of for the Standards Committee’s verdict to be overturned and Wells, the Scottish Conservative equalities spokeswoman, will be barred for five business days – effectively a week’s ban – after that vote.
The recommendation will mean that she does not lose any salary unlike former SNP MSP Mark MacDonald who now sits as an Independent. He was banned for a month over claims about inappropriate behaviour.
Two previous MSPs, Tory Brian Monteith and Liberal Democrat Mike Pringle also served week bans over alleged leaks.
The Committee’s findings came after SNP MSP Gail Ross complained the Tory MSP for Glasgow had “sought political advantage by making advance public comment” on a report by the Parliament’s Equalities and Human Rights Committee on the issue of prisoner voting prior to the report being published.
Bill Kidd, convener of Holyrood’s Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee, said: “The Committee has considered a complaint from Gail Ross MSP about Annie Wells MSP.
“The complaint is that Annie Wells sought political advantage by making advance public comment on the Equalities and Human Rights Committee’s report on “Prisoner Voting in Scotland”.
“This Committee is unanimous in the decisions reached on the complaint.”
He added: “I propose that the Committee will recommend in its report that the Parliament excludes Annie Wells MSP from all meetings of the Parliament and all meetings of its Committees for five sitting days.”
Wells said: “Numerous media outlets contacted our office seeking comment on a story on the front page of a national newspaper that morning on prisoner voting. So I responded to that, as every MSP would, by issuing a statement to them reiterating my opposition to allowing prisoners voting rights.
“My response did not contain details of the report that weren’t already known, nor was I responsible for the original leak of the document to the paper, and we still don’t know who was. Indeed, I did not receive the final report until after it had featured in the national media.
“I will continue to work on behalf of my constituents and I will continue to oppose giving prisoners voting rights.”
A full report into the matter was due to be published yesterday but had not been issued by the time The National went to press.
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