THE SCOTTISH Tories are trying to bring in tough new rules to force absentee MSPs out of Holyrood

The so-called Mackay law has been named after the former SNP finance minister who hasn’t been to the Scottish Parliament since quitting his Scottish Government position in February. 

Derek Mackay was suspended from the SNP after he was caught sending 270 messages to a 16-year-old boy via Facebook and Instagram.

Because he resigned from government rather than being sacked, he was eligible for a Scottish parliament resettlement grant of £11,945.

Despite the £64,470 annual salary there are no rules around how much work an MSP is expected to do.

Mackay has cancelled all his local surgeries, and his website - which previously told constituents how he could be contacted - has been taken offline.

Neither has he taken part in any votes, even though the Coronavirus pandemic forced Holyrood to introduce remote voting, allowing MSPs to have their say from home. 

The Tories now plan to introduce a private members bill in the next parliament to force "invisible" MSPs to quit.

If passed it would mean that any MSP who failed to show up to Holyrood for six months would need to stand down.

Graham Simpson, the Scottish Tory transport spokesman said this was similar to rules in most local authorities. 

“If Derek Mackay was a councillor and hadn’t done his job for six months then he would have been drummed out,” he said..

“But there are no rules covering MSPs’ attendance, which means they can do nothing and pocket the cash.

“In theory, you could act like Derek Mackay is currently doing for five years. That is just wrong.

“If you are elected to the Scottish Parliament you should be a worker not a shirker. Nothing else should be allowed.

“If Mr Mackay had any honour left he would stand down now and allow the people of Renfrewshire North and West to elect someone who will properly represent them.”

Mackay’s unsolicited messages, which began on 2 August, included calling the teenager “cute” a number of times, discussing the boy’s new haircut, and inviting him to dinner and to a parliamentary event as his guest.

The Sun reported the boy saying he felt “grossed out” by Mackay and that he stopped responding to his messages on 27 December.

Mackay continued messaging him until 1 February, even though the boy refused to reply.

The paper said the teenager’s mother was furious. “I worry about what would have happened if my son had sent him back a message he wanted to hear,” she said.

Speaking to reporters at the time the messages were revealed, Sturgeon said she believed Mackay needed to consider his political future: “Clearly, there are issues to be reflected on here, but it was inconsistent for the party to suspend him pending further investigation and for me then to immediately pre-empt the outcome of that,” she said.

“But I couldn’t be clearer about my views of the seriousness and the severity of the issues we are discussing today.”