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Or direct bank transfer at Sort Code 08-91-04  Account - 12266421 Name - JOHN ROBERTSON

From BBC Scotland Politics today:

MSPs are to decide whether to give voters the power to effectively sack them. Holyrood parliamentarians automatically lose their seat if they are given a custodial sentence of 12 months or more. But unlike at Westminster, where MPs can be removed by local voters, there is no recall mechanism in the Scottish Parliament.

Under a members’ bill tabled by Reform’s Graham Simpson, MSPs could be recalled if they are either suspended from Holyrood for a minimum of 10 sitting days or sentenced to less than a year in jail. The Scottish Parliament (Recall and Removal of Members) Bill comfortably passed a stage one vote on its general principles.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c78xz3xy6njo

With huge irony and a tin ear, Simpson seems the last person to be leading on this, have defecated from the Conservative Party to Reform UK, only last year, and without standing down to allow his constituents a say in whether they want his continued representation.

Defecating to another party is by far the most commonly quoted reason for wanting to deselect a politician.

There have been public petitions on the UK Parliament website calling for reforms, such as:

• Automatically triggering a by-election on party change.
• Amending the Recall of MPs Act 2015 to include voluntary party defection (or leaving/expulsion) as a trigger for a recall petition. (If 10% of constituents sign such a petition, it forces a by-election where the MP could stand again.)
• At least one such petition has surpassed 100,000–128,000 signatures, which typically qualifies it for parliamentary debate (one was scheduled or set for debate around March 2026 in relation to these events).

There have been historical attempts:

• Private Members’ Bills in 2011 and 2022 proposed requiring by-elections for party-switchers, but they did not progress.
• A 2020 debate/ten-minute rule bill (Recall of MPs (Change of Party Affiliation)) proposed adding defection as a recall trigger; it gained some support but did not become law.

We all know why none of these have progressed and why Simpson’s too, will be rejected – turkeys, Xmas etc.

Please Support Talking-up Scotland at:

https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/support-talking-up-scotland

Click on the above.

Or direct bank transfer at Sort Code 08-91-04  Account - 12266421 Name - JOHN ROBERTSON