It seems a fresh scandal is embroiling the SNP. In recent days, reports have emerged that two of the party’s politicians were so wrapped up in an extramarital affair during Covid that they disregarded their own government’s pandemic restrictions to continue it. Matt Hancock, step aside…
The SNP has denied the rumours as ‘categorically untrue’, but reports of the illicit affair continue to dominate the news. Mr S takes a look at some of the most recent SNP sex scandals to have hit the headlines. Here are six of the worst that we can report on:
1. Love triangle
A storyline fit for the movies, this scandal began with three love-rats and ended in two broken marriages. In 2016 it emerged that Serena Cowdy, journalist for political magazine the House, had been involved with married father-of-three, SNP MP Angus MacNeil during the independence referendum campaign. Only a few months later, Cowdy moved on to another lover: deputy leader of the SNP at the time, Stewart Hosie. Hosie was also married – to SNP MSP and close friend of Nicola Sturgeon, Shona Robison. Robison ended her marriage after Hosie confessed to her in the aftermath of the 2016 Holyrood election result and since then, Cowdy and Hosie have remained together. Cowdy was elected as an SNP councillor in Angus last year and is attempting to become a nationalist MP for Arbroath and Broughty Ferry. All’s well that ends well…
2. Three-in-a-bed
MacNeil – now an independent MP after his bust-up with former SNP chief whip Brendan O’Hara – is no stranger to saucy affairs. Long before he met Cowdy, MacNeil was implicated in a three-in-the-bed sex scandal that involved two teenage musicians from the Isle of Lewis. MacNeil has since apologised for the event and described it as a ‘lapse of judgement’. The tryst damaged both his reputation and his career prospects. Before the unflattering story was broken, MacNeil was tipped as a rising star of the SNP after making the police complaint that sparked the ‘cash for honours’ sleaze scandal at Westminster. How the mighty fall…
3. Cross-party relations
The Nats haven’t always been bad at cross-party working. In fact, the SNP has form for getting into bed with the opposition: SNP MP David Linden split from his wife for Labour frontbencher Cat Smith. Smith’s first husband, who also happened to be head of digital at Labour HQ, took to Facebook to express his dismay at the affair. So much for all that talk of Red Tories, eh?
4. Costa Rican Casanova
Former SNP MSP Kenny Gibson was embroiled in scandal after he was caught eloping to Costa Rica with married SNP aide, Ellen Forson. Only weeks later, he jetted off again – to Spain, with his SNP MP wife Patricia. But this wasn’t the first time Gibson was caught red-handed. His former fiancée had spoken out previously about Gibson’s affair after she found out he’d planned a romantic break to Cyprus with, er, none other than Patricia herself. What goes around…
5. Crooked councillor
One of the more shocking incidents was when SNP councillor Jordan Linden was forced to resign from North Lanarkshire council after a teenage boy alleged Linden had sexually assaulted him. Linden also withdrew his bid to become an MP for the area after details about the alleged assault, which was said to take place at a party after Dundee’s Gay Pride celebration in 2019, emerged. The Sunday Mail subsequently reported that a number of young men, some of whom were Scottish Youth parliament members, had been propositioned. Linden, who denies the accusations, quit as a councillor earlier this year.
6. Schoolboy error
Former finance secretary Derek Mackay was suspended from the party after he was found to have had sent inappropriate messages to a 16-year-old boy. Mackay invited the schoolboy to dinner, a Scottish parliament event and also told him that he was ‘really cute’. Senior SNP figures were rattled by the revelations, expressing concerns that the messages were close to grooming. They weren’t concerned enough, apparently – as it was later reported that the Scottish government had challenged the Sun’s right to publish text messages between the politician and the young boy. More of that openness and transparency the SNP are so good at, eh?
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