An SNP MP has accused the party’s chief whip at Westminster of bullying after a “very tense” exchange in the House of Commons.
Angus MacNeil is said to have called Brendan O’Hara “a small wee man” on Monday night before throwing away letters that were given to him.
The documents are said to be about MacNeil’s attendance in Parliament.
STV News was told the exchange was “very tense”.
Following the incident MacNeil, the Na h-Eileanan an Iar MP, tweeted: “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.”
Later, the SNP figure shared a reply to his tweet, which said: “Yes. They are cowards. They can never operate without a similar wee clique of nasty cowards around them. They’re also never intelligent people, or they wouldn’t behave that way to cover it.”
MacNeil has been openly critical of his party.
He previously called for Nicola Sturgeon to resign from the party and spoke out against the Scottish Government’s now scrapped Highly Protected Marine Areas.
Scottish Conservative chairman Craig Hoy MSP said: “This incident appears to be yet another very public example of the SNP’s increasingly bitter civil war.
“If Angus MacNeil’s not-so-subtle tweet has been directed at his own Chief whip then it is clear that discipline is well and truly out the window among the nationalists.
“While they managed to keep a lid on these sort of feuds for years, the recent chaos engulfing the party means they have now spilled out into the open.
“The only thing they are left agreeing on is their overriding obsession to break up the United Kingdom but in the meantime Scottish voters are paying the price for their poisonous infighting and total lack of focus on their real priorities.”
O’Hara and the SNP have been approached for comment.
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