Humza Yousaf has urged Lisa Cameron, the Scottish National party politician who has defected to the Conservatives, to do the “honourable thing” and resign as an MP.
The first minister told the Guardian Cameron’s decision to cross the floor, after accusing the SNP of “toxic and bullying” behaviour, was a betrayal of her constituents and of the party activists who campaigned to get her elected.
Yousaf said: “She was elected on an SNP ticket not a Conservative ticket. The people of her constituency elected and wanted an SNP MP, and she’s decided to defect to the Tories.
“It’s a betrayal of her constituents. It’s a big betrayal of her activists who really would have worked hard, pounding the pavements delivering the leaflets, doing the canvassing, day in and day out to get her elected because she was an SNP MP – so it’s a real kick in the gut for them.”
Cameron had been signalling for weeks she could quit as an MP and force a byelection after accusing the SNP’s Westminster group of bullying and ostracising her after she spoke up for a party worker who was sexually harassed by the then chief whip, Patrick Grady.
Instead on Thursday she announced she had joined the Tories, claiming that Rishi Sunak, the prime minister, had been far more supportive of her and had shown “positive, inclusive leadership”.
Her announcement came on the day she was expected to hear she had not been selected by the SNP to defend her seat of East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow at the next election.
At the last general election Cameron had a majority of more than 13,000, with 46% of the vote. Labour came second with 23% and the Tories third with 21%.
The SNP is about to gather for its annual conference in Aberdeen, its first under the leadership of Yousaf, and the party was already shaken by its heavy defeat to Labour in the Rutherglen and Hamilton West byelection.
After winning Rutherglen with a 20% swing from the SNP, Labour would have been very optimistic about its chances of winning back East Kilbride.
The SNP said on Thursday its candidate for the seat would be Grant Costello, the SNP’s digital media manager. He will be challenged by Joani Reid, the granddaughter of Jimmy Reid, known for leading a work-in at Upper Clyde Shipbuilders in 1971, who is standing for Scottish Labour. A hero to many on the left in Scotland, Reid became an SNP member and supporter of independence before he died in 2010, while his granddaughter was a Labour councillor in Lewisham, south-east London.
In a statement to the Daily Mail, Cameron said the bullying she had received from her former Westminster colleagues left her needing counselling and led to a “significant deterioration in my health and wellbeing as assessed by my GP, including the need for antidepressants”.
Cameron said: “I will never regret my actions in standing up for a victim of abuse at the hands of an SNP MP last year, but I have no faith remaining in a party whose leadership supported the perpetrator’s interests over that of the victims.”
Her defection increases the number of Scottish Tory MPs to seven. Douglas Ross, the Scottish Tory leader, was delighted with her defection. He said on X it was “great to have Lisa Cameron on board”.
He added: “The @ScotTories will stand up for everyone who has been forgotten by the SNP to get the focus on to Scotland’s real priorities.”
It’s great to have Lisa Cameron on board.
— Douglas Ross MP MSP (@Douglas4Moray) October 12, 2023
The @ScotTories will stand up for everyone who has been forgotten by the SNP to get the focus onto Scotland’s real priorities. https://t.co/9GcMJYbTDC
Yousaf said he could not comment on Cameron’s health but denied she had been ignored, saying she had met recently with Stephen Flynn, the SNP’s Westminster group leader, and his deputy, Mhairi Black. Yousaf said he had not spoken to Cameron but said he had “made it very clear that my door is very open”.
“It is just unheard of for somebody who says they are committed to seeing Scotland become an independent country to then join the Conservative and Unionist party. It just does not make any sense in terms of your principles, I’m afraid.”
Grady was suspended by the SNP at Westminster last year after an independent parliamentary inquiry found he had made unwanted sexual advances to a then 19-year-old party worker at a pub in London in 2016.
Grady was reinstated in December, after finishing his six-month suspension.
Labour’s Ian Murray, the shadow secretary of state for Scotland, said Cameron’s decision made the choice for voters much clearer. He said Michael Shanks, the new Labour MP for Rutherglen and Hamilton West, was being sworn in at Westminster on Monday just as Cameron crossed the floor to join the Tories.
“The choice at the next general election couldn’t be starker,” Murray wrote on X. “As Labour are set to get rid the Tories the SNP are joining them.”
