Holyrood could vote to ban MSPs sitting as MPs amid Stephen Flynn row

Holyrood could vote on banning MSPs sitting as MPs as soon as Christmas under plans by a Tory politician.

Graham Simpson said he would try to end double jobbing in the wake of the row over Stephen Flynn.

The SNP Westminster leader announced last week that he wanted to run for the Holyrood seat of Aberdeen South and North Kincardine seat in 2026.

But his decision prompted a backlash within the party after he said he would not step down as the MP for Aberdeen South.

The Scottish Parliament seat, which overlaps with Flynn’s Westminster seat, is currently held by SNP MSP Audrey Nicol.

Flynn previously criticised former Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross for holding seats in both parliaments.

Writing in the Daily Record on Monday, Simpson said he would re-table his amendment to the Scottish Elections (Representation and Reform) Bill to ban so-called double jobbing.

Under his proposals, an MP who is elected to Holyrood would be required to stand down from Westminster within eight days.

“Stephen Flynn has helped me to make up my mind on this,” he wrote in the newspaper.

“Being an MSP is a full-time job and anyone lucky enough to have the honour of being elected to the Scottish Parliament should be doing so on that basis.

“It is wrong that anyone should be able to sit as an MSP and MP at the same time.”

Simpson said Scotland was an outlier in the UK as dual mandates are already banned in Wales and Northern Ireland.

The Central Scotland MSP had initially tabled amendments to ban the practice but was told by Jamie Hepburn, the minister for parliamentary business, that he wanted to have a consultation first and that legislation would not go ahead until after the 2026 Holyrood election.

He said: “At stage 2 I did not put my amendments to a vote. I would have lost but then Flynn did us all a favour by showing his hand.”

He added: “The Scottish Parliament should be given the opportunity to end this nonsense ahead of 2026 and I will give it that chance.

“I will re-table my amendments on this so that parties can do the right thing and show that MSPs think the practice of double jobbing is no longer acceptable.”

Flynn has defended his decision to sit in both parliaments but admitted it was “not a pleasant situation” for him to try and oust one of his SNP colleagues from Holyrood.

Asked on the BBC’s Sunday Show about the reaction within the party, Flynn said: “There’s always going to be a strong reaction to someone seeking to do things differently, I’ve experienced this before in politics.

“It’s not something which is particularly pleasant, it’s not something which is particularly comfortable, particularly when you’re dealing with people who you know really well, you’re dealing with, in my case, a colleague who overlaps almost entirely with the constituency that I currently represent at Westminster.

“This is not a pleasant situation for either of us.

“All I’m seeking to do is ask the members who vote for us, who ultimately decide who their candidate is going to be, to make a decision.”