Reform MSP blasts Holyrood for rejecting his recall Bill

And the MSP who brought the Bill accused them of voting it down because of his defection to Reform UK.

Graham Simpson told LBC he believes MSPs voted against his Bill because he defected from the Scottish Conservatives to Nigel Farage's party last year, giving Reform its first politician in Holyrood.

He had begun the process of brining forward a recall Bill when on the Tory benches - when it had the party's support.

Today the Conservatives abstained, while the SNP and Scottish Greens voted it down, despite saying they believed a recall system was needed. Scottish Labour and the Scottish Liberal Democrats backed the Bill.

Ultimately it fell as only 30 MSPs voted for it, 66 were against, and there were 27 abstentions.

Mr Simpson told LBC: "This was deeply disappointing. It leaves Scotland as the only part of Britain which will not have a recall process.

"There was absolsutely no need to vote down this Bill, It gives the impression I'm afraid of MSPs looking after themselves, and in my view, this was an entirely party political decision. Because I've joined Reform I don't think there was an appetiite from some of the parties to put this Bill through.

"I think that's what's behind this and frankly it's an embarrassment."

Asked if he was referring to his former Tory colleagues or parrties who voted against his Bill, he said: "All of them."

The Scottish Parliament (Recall and Removal of Members) Bill would have allowed parliamentarians to be thrown out by voters if they were suspended from Holyrood for a minimum of 10 days or sentenced to less than a year in jail.

It would have introduced a recall system similar to the one in use at Westminster.

Under current rules, Holyrood parliamentarians automatically lose their seat if they are given a jail sentence of 12 months or more,

The Bill would have seen constituency MSPs able to be removed if 10 per cent of eligible voters in their area signed a recall petition – the same as the process at Westminster.

A regional list MSP would lose their seat if a majority of eligible voters in their region voted to recall them. They would be replaced by the person who was next on their party's candidate list at the previous election.

During the debate Parliamentary business minister Graeme Dey said that while the SNP government strongly supports the introduction of a recall system, too much was unknown about potential changes to Holyrood's complaints and sanctions process, which is currently being reviewed.

He said the sanctions regime and any recall mechanism needed to be considered together and suggested this should be revisited in the next parliament.

Meanwhile, Scottish Conservative MSP Sue Webber said the bill was "not tough enough," and would have "failed to turf out" former finance secretary Derek Mackay – who refused to attend parliament after it emerged he had exchanged private social media messages with a teenage boy.

Her amendment that would have seen the removal of MSPs who do not attend parliament either in person or digitally for six months or more was rejected.

But Scottish Labour's business manager, Martin Whitfield, accused the SNP of "putting the party before country" in rejecting the bill.

He added: "The people of Scotland can draw their own conclusions about why the SNP might not want them to have the power to recall MSPs who are not fit for office.

"Last week, the SNP voted against strengthening freedom of information and now they are voting to stop their MSPs from being accountable to voters – it is an insult to the people who elected them."