All is not well among the SNP’s Westminster group and this time, it’s not Mhairi Black causing them trouble. Leader Stephen Flynn has today suspended Salmond ally Angus MacNeil from the party after a public bust up with the Chief Whip Brendan O’Hara.
Tension has been brewing between MacNeil and O’Hara for a while but it came to a head last night in the Commons division lobbies. O’Hara is alleged to have been sending MacNeil, the MP for Na h-Eileanan an Iar, disciplinary notices about his poor attendance in parliament.
It became one notice too many for MacNeil who, in his latest disagreement with the whip, reportedly seethed ‘You’re a small wee man!’ several times before flinging the whole lot of papers back at him. Oh dear.
But this rather public act of melodrama was not quite enough to calm MacNeil down. Still seething, he then took to social media in a rage to tweet:
General Advice – Always stand up to bullies, – esp any abusing their positions – particularly those who scurry around shouting to anyone listening, “I’ll get him, I’ll get him, I WILL get him! – mark my words” – These are people, who from school, we should get taught to face down.
And it seems that this is not the first major fallout the pair have had. It is alleged O’Hara’s heavy-handedness has led to him swearing at MacNeil, while other MPs have criticised the whip’s ‘Standford prison guard’ style of working. How very interesting, then, that only one of the terrible twosome has been disciplined…
Perhaps this is the ‘toxic’ culture Mhairi Black was so desperate to escape…
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