SNP Westminster Leader Insists Mass PMQs Walk-Out Was NOT Set Up
13 June 2018, 16:04 | Updated: 13 June 2018, 16:13
The SNP Westminster leader has insisted his party’s walk-out protest during PMQs was not pre-planned.
SNP MPs stormed out of the Commons after Ian Blackford was expelled for refusing to take his seat.
It’s after he became embroiled in a row with the Speaker of the House over the handling of the government’s EU Withdrawal Bill debate.
He was protesting against what he called the government's "contempt" for Scotland in the Brexit process.
After the protest made headlines, Andrew Bowie, Conservative MP for West Aberdeenshire, tweeted a picture which he claimed was a script left behind by the SNP.
So Shelagh Fogarty decided to get to the bottom of it by asking the SNP Westminster leader outright.
She said: “The speed of which your colleagues followed you either makes you the Pied Piper of Scotland or this was a set up.”
SNP- "This was not a stunt". Unfortunately they left their script in the Commons...I wonder if they practice their outrage... pic.twitter.com/3x1V7Mx1Q8
— Andrew Bowie MP (@AndrewBowieMP) June 13, 2018
Mr Blackford replied: “No it wasn’t a set up.
“We were using the mechanisms of the standing orders of the House to demonstrate to the government that this simply wasn’t acceptable.”
The unprecedented commotion brought Wednesday's PMQs to a temporary halt.
Shelagh asked Mr Blackford directly about Mr Bowie's tweet, which appeared to show a picture of a script.
He replied: “I am afraid he is wholly misguided as far as that is concerned.”
