Oh dear. It seems that Humza Yousaf’s first conference as party leader has been spectacularly upstaged. Three days before the big SNP shindig in Aberdeen, one of Yousaf’s MPs in Westminster has decided to cross the floor to join, of all parties, the Conservatives in the House of Commons.
Lisa Cameron – by common consent, one of the nicest members of parliament – says she has defected to the Tories over ‘toxic and bullying’ treatment from colleagues. She attributes her treatment from colleagues to her decision to speak out in support of the harassment victim of fellow SNP MP Patrick Grady. Cameron told the Scottish Daily Mail:
I do not feel able to continue in what I have experienced as a toxic and bullying SNP Westminster group, which resulted in my requiring counselling for a period of 12 months in parliament and caused significant deterioration in my health and wellbeing as assessed by my GP including the need for antidepressants. I will never regret my actions in standing up for a victim of abuse at the hands of an SNP MP last year, but I have no faith remaining in a party whose leadership supported the perpetrator’s interests over that of the victims and who have shown little to no interest in acknowledging or addressing the impact. It is also true that I have received no contact from party leadership in the past weeks, despite members of every other main political party contacting me to offer support and compassion during what has been an extremely difficult time.
Ouch. Rishi Sunak has welcomed Cameron to the fold, hailing it as a sign that ‘we are the party for those who will make constructive, long term decisions for a brighter future for the whole of the UK.’ Even if, er, they were elected on a platform of breaking it up? Still, while Cameron’s journey from nationalist to unionist is somewhat puzzling, Mr S is nevertheless enjoying the fury from her erstwhile colleagues, spitting feathers at her audacious defection.
Even the SNP’s ever-growing army of spin doctors will have a tough time spinning that one at party conference…
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