Nicola Sturgeon has called on Scottish National Party (SNP) MP Margaret Ferrier to "do the right thing" and resign after she took a train from London to Scotland after having tested positive for Covid 19.
Sturgeon said that Ferrier was a friend of hers and that her comments came with the "heaviest of hearts". But she said: "her actions were reckless, dangerous and completely indefensible" and that she was "very angry on behalf of all of you". Self-isolation was not "voluntary", Sturgeon added.
The MP for Rutherglen and Hamilton West said she had experienced "mild symptoms" on Saturday and was tested for coronavirus. However, she decided to travel by train to Westminster on Monday, a journey that typically takes more than five hours, before getting her result because she was "feeling much better".
She then spoke in the Commons chamber during a coronavirus debate but was told later that evening that she had tested positive for the virus.
Despite this, Ferrier took a train back to Scotland on Tuesday, with SNP whips in the Commons being told about her positive test on Wednesday.
Ferrier was stripped of the whip on Thursday night by the SNP leader in the UK parliament Ian Blackford - but there are growing calls for her to resign as an MP, which would spark a by-election.
Blackford told the BBC that he expected that voters would expect her to "reflect on her position - but I think it is pretty clear what I am trying to do".
Sturgeon later tweeted that she had spoken with Ms Ferrier "and made clear my view that she should step down as an MP", adding: ""I have no power to force an MP to resign but I hope she will do the right thing."
Should Ferrier step down a by-election would likely be a two-way fight between the SNP and Scottish Labour. Ferrier was the MP for Rutherglen and Hamilton West after winning the seat at the 2015 UK general election. She lost the seat at the June 2017 election to Gerald Killen of Scottish Labour by 265 votes but she won it back in the December 2019 election with a majority of 5,240.
Robert Jenrick, the Housing and Communities Secretary, told Sky News: "What Margaret Ferrier does now is decision for her and her former party. Nobody is above the law. Politicians have to abide by the law whether it relates to Covid or anything else."
Ferrier’s actions come on the heels of similar rule breaches by UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s special advisor Dominic Cummings, former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, leading government scientist Neil Ferguson, who was responsible for formulating much of the government’s initial pandemic response, and others.
