TWO SNP MSPs have become embroiled in a Facebook spat – after one claimed to have been snubbed for a TV appearance in favour of her younger colleague.
Christine Grahame said that she had been knocked back by the party’s press office from her request to represent the SNP on BBC Debate Night on Wednesday evening which is being filmed in Galashiels, an area she has represented in Holyrood for the last 25 years.
But she said that her request was rejected by party spin doctors in favour of former minister Emma Roddick (below), who has been a list MSP for the Highlands and Islands since 2021.
In a post on Facebook, Grahame said she felt the party had made the “wrong decision”.
She said: “BBC Debate Night is in Galashiels tonight but unfortunately, I will not be on the panel.
“I did put myself forward because as you will know I have been the MSP there for over 25 years and am pretty familiar with local issues (as well as national).
“Unfortunately, my bid was not successful. Emma Roddick, list member for Highlands and Islands, asked to be the panel member for the SNP and it was felt by the SNP Press Office here to be more appropriate.
“I think it was a wrong decision, but I wish her well.”
In a comment under Grahame's post, Roddick replied: "Wow, Christine, you could have just said to me rather than post something like this. Why on earth would you go about it this way?
"It isn't a bidding system – I was asked a couple of weeks ago to cover [Debate Night] on [March 19] and I said yes, with no awareness of whether anyone else had been asked first or if they'd turned it down and why, because that's not my business.
"Would a tap on the shoulder not have been a better way to go about this? Take the slot."
Grahame has said she will step down as the MSP for Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale, which she has held since 2011. Before that she was a list MSP for the South of Scotland.
Roddick served as equalities minister in Humza Yousaf’s government for just over a year from 2023.
She has recently found herself engaged in spats with SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn after she appeared to call him a “prick” for announcing he would seek a Holyrood seat at next year’s election.
In return, an anonymous party source told the Daily Mail that Roddick was “talentless” and “lazy”.
She was later said to have been featured on a rumoured all-female “hit list” of MSPs that SNP’s Westminster cohort had drawn up to find themselves seats in the Scottish Parliament.
The SNP and Roddick were approached for comment.
