THE Tories have dismissed calls to stand aside in any potential Rutherglen by-election, so that Labour can make it a "two-horse race".
John Lamont, the MP for Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk, said that if Margaret Ferrier resigned her seat, his party would relish the chance to take part in any resulting contest.
There’s increasing pressure on the now suspended SNP MP to quit the Commons following her inexplicable decision to travel despite knowing she was carrying the coronavirus.
Though she’s had the whip removed, she remains an MP until she either stands down, or, if she’s penalised by the Commons authorities, loses a recall vote held by constituents.
Ferrier initially won Rutherglen and Hamilton West off Labour in the 2015 election. She lost the seat to Labour’s Ged Killen in 2017 before winning it back with a majority of 5230 in 2019.
The Tory candidate, Lynne Nailon came third with 8054 votes.
Lamont told the BBC’s Good Morning Scotland, that the SNP should have done more than just suspend the whip.
“The SNP could expel her from the SNP party, they have suspended her, based on her own account she has broken the law and I think it’s sufficiently serious to warrant expulsion from the SNP and that is an option which is open to the First Minister and to Mr Blackford, the SNP leader at Westminster.
“Such is the seriousness of this, such is the potential risk to hundreds of other travellers and people within the country who potentially came into contact with Ms Ferrier as she travelled between Scotland and Westminster and back from Westminster to Scotland, I think the SNP should be expelling her.”
Lamont rubbished the possibility of the Tories “stepping aside” in order to make the contest “a two-horse race" between the SNP and Labour.
He said: “The Scottish Conservatives will always contest elections and if there is a by-election in this constituency I'm sure that will be no different.
“And it's only the Scottish Conservatives providing a very robust opposition to the SNP and Nicola Sturgeon in the Scottish Parliament. It will give us an opportunity to demonstrate that opposition and what alternatives plans we have for Scotland at the heart of the United Kingdom.
"So we will not be standing aside in any by-election, we'll be putting our case positively to the electorate of Glasgow, if that indeed is the outcome of this situation Ms Ferrier finds herself in.”
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