THE SNP has been accused of hypocrisy after attacking dual mandate candidates for Holyrood and Westminster while appearing to have one of its own.
The party’s Westminster leader Ian Blackford hit out at Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross yesterday for refusing to resign as an MP while also seeking a seat in Holyrood.
He urged Mr Ross to follow the lead of Neil Gray, former MP for Airdrie and Shotts, who is standing for Holyrood in May and resigned his Westminster seat this week.
“Are dual mandates one more Tory policy where they think greed is good?” Mr Blackford asked at PMQs.
READ MORE: SNP own-goal over byelection attack on Tories
However it has now emerged that the SNP’s candidate to replace Mr Gray at Westminster, Anum Qaisar-Javed, is herself listed as a candidate for Holyrood.
She is ranked fifth on the party’s regional list for Central Scotland.
When the SNP was approached about the issue today, a spokeswoman said that Ms Qaisar-Javed had “withdrawn her name” from the Holyrood list to focus on the Westminster byelection.
Ms Qaisar-Javed posted online that she had been selected as the Westminster candidate on March 18, several months after also posting about her seeking a Holyrood seat.
The SNP insisted that after she was selected, Ms Qaisar-Javed “indicated she would take her name off the Central list.”
However she has yet to announce anything about no longer being a Holyrood candidate, and is still displayed as a one on the SNP’s official list online.
An SNP spokeswoman added: “Anum has withdrawn her name from the Central Scotland list and is fully focussed on the by-election.”
Scottish Conservative chief whip Miles Briggs said: "We know the SNP civil war is ferocious, but this is an absolute embarrassment and exposes a complete breakdown in communication between their factions.
"The SNP's London branch office is staging a political stunt with this bill to parliament while one of their own candidates is seeking election for both Holyrood and Westminster.
"It appears they only realised about this hypocrisy when it was pointed out to them by the Herald newspaper.
“Increasingly the SNP are embarrassing the people of Scotland and are only interested in playing political games and scoring cheap points.”
It comes as SNP MP Alyn Smith is preparing to present a bill in Westminster this afternoon, aiming to ban MPs from being MSPs as well.
Douglas Ross announced today he will keep his Westminster seat even if he is successful at the polls on May 6.
READ MORE: Douglas Ross confirms plan to be 'double-jobbing' MP and MSP
Yesterday The Herald revealed that Ian Blackford’s criticism of Mr Ross at Prime Minister’s Questions had backfired after he said his colleague Neil Gray had saved the taxpayer £175,000 by standing down.
Mr Blackford said: "By doing the right thing, [Mr Gray] will avoid a dual mandate and a separate by-election that would cost the public £175,000" and also urged Boris Johnson to force Mr Ross to resign as an MP and follow Mr Gray’s lead.”
The SNP had hoped the by-election for Mr Gray’s seat would be held on the same day as the Holyrood poll, May 6, however it is understood that North Lanarkshire council’s risk assessment has determined it will have to take place on April 29 – therefore costing extra taxpayer cash despite what Mr Blackford suggested.
The party said they had done their part as far as they could to ensure the by-election would take place on May 6, with a spokesman adding: “Neil took guidance on timing to ensure a by-election could be held on May 6th - the same date as the Scottish Parliament election.
"Ultimately though, the decision of which date to hold the by-election lies with the Labour-run North Lanarkshire Council, once the writ has been moved."
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