Labour has claimed voters in the Western Isles have become “unwilling conscripts in the SNP’s chaotic civil war” after the Nationalists expelled their local MP.

Angus MacNeil, who has represented the seat since 2005, was thrown out of the party a fortnight ago for indiscipline and clashing with chief whip Brenda O’Hara at Westminster.

He has said he now expects to stand as an independent at the general election, potentially splitting the Nationalist vote and making it harder for the SNP to hold the seat.

Ahead of a visit to campaign alongside Labour candidate Torcuil Crichton, Shadow Scottish Secretary Ian Murray said the islands were being neglected amid the squabble.

Mr MacNeil, 53, was initially suspended in July after a row with Mr O’Hara but refused to rejoin the SNP Westminster group.

He also called the party’s leadership “utterly clueless about how to pursue independence”.

READ MORE: SNP goes £800,000 into the red as membership slumps

An SNP conduct committee subsequently expelled him and he now sits as an Independent.

His majority over Labour in 2019 in Na h-Eileanan an Iar, which with 21,000 voters has the smallest electorate in the UK, was 2,358, or 16.8% of the vote.

The seat was already one of Scottish Labour’s targets before Mr MacNeil’s expulsion.

It is now seen by the party as an even better prospect for Mr Crichton, a former political editor of the Daily Record who is a well-known commentator in Gaelic on TV and radio. 

Mr Murray, who is due to appear alongside Mr Crichton at a public meeting in Stornoway’s County Hotel tonight as part of a two-day visit,  accused Humza Yousaf and “rogue MP Angus MacNeil” of taking voters for granted.

He said: “Humza Yousaf is such a weak leader that he cannot even organise to replace Angus MacNeil with an SNP candidate.

"Meanwhile Mr MacNeil seems to think he can use an expired SNP mandate from islanders to do battle in the SNP civil war.

“The SNP shenanigans in the islands have to stop.

"The Western Isles cannot become collateral damage or be treated as a political playground by nationalists and it is disrespecting island voters to treat them as pawns in the SNP’s civil war.” 

Mr Crichton added: “What the voters of the Western Isles deserve is serious representation at national level on the issues that are important to them.

“From the state of the ferries to the cost of living, from NHS services and teenage mental health to the future of their families and communities, people need to be connected to a Labour government which is on their side and an MP who will pursue their concerns instead of wasting time on party political vendettas.”

READ MORE: New SNP accounts omit Indyref2 appeal under police investigation

In response, Mr MacNeil said it was “typical of Labour to play the man and not the ball”. 

He went on: “But no wonder when their policies are the same as the Tories and they have no answers for Scotland then it is easier to play the man than the ball. 

“I won't be joining Ian Murray or anyone else in the gutter." 

A local SNP spokesperson said: “The Western Isles deserve better than a Keir Starmer Tory-replica party dead-set on continuing brutal austerity and imposing a damaging Brexit on Scotland.

“Communities across the Western Isles are suffering from the economic chaos created by Westminster’s cost of living crisis and Brexit, and they need an alternative.

“In the next election only the SNP are offering a real alternative in the form of a return to the EU with independence, and the SNP’s candidate in the islands will be standing on that platform.”