It’s the end of an era. Ian Blackford has this week announced he will be standing down as an MP at the next election. Not quite making it to a decade in the Commons, the MP for Ross, Skye and Lochaber released a 659-word article about his resignation that, er, didn’t quite manage to explain the reasons for his resignation. No matter. Mr S can list a number of reasons why Blackford might have been particularly keen to leave his role…
The Patrick Grady fiasco
Cast your mind back to last year when Blackford ordered his MPs to lend their support to a sex pest in their own party. Back when he was Westminster leader of the SNP group, Blackford told SNP MPs to give Patrick Grady their ‘absolute full support’ – only 15 minutes after their then Chief Whip had been suspended from parliament for inappropriately touching a colleague 17 years his junior at a social event.
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