MP Margaret Ferrier pleads guilty to Covid rule breach
18 August 2022, 12:12
MP Margaret Ferrier has pleaded guilty to breaching Covid rules by travelling on a train between Scotland and London after being told to self-isolate in September 2020, during a hearing at Glasgow Sheriff Court on Thursday.
She admitted that she culpably and recklessly exposed the public to risk of Covid-19 infection.
Ferrier, an independent MP for Rutherglen and Hamilton West, admitted wilfully exposing people "to the risk of infection, illness and death" by visiting various places in the Glasgow area and London having been told to self-isolate in late September 2020.
She had the SNP whip removed in 2020 after the allegations emerged and has come under pressure to resign from her seat, but remains an MP.
Sentencing was deferred until next month.
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She took a Covid-19 test in September 2020 because she had a ’tickly throat’ and then went to church on a Sunday while awaiting the results, reading to the congregation, before going to a bar for more than two hours.
She then travelled to London by train and spoke in the Commons later that day before learning she had tested positive.
She got the train back to Glasgow the following day fearing she would be forced to self-isolate in a London hotel room for two weeks.
Prosecutors said she had “culpably and recklessly” put people at risk by visiting several places in Glasgow and her visits in London.
