FORMER SNP MP Dr Lisa Cameron, who defected to the Tories last week, said she had been forced into hiding with her family after receiving a ‘’torrent of abuse’’ and threats.
Since making the shock announcement about her intention to cross the floor to join the Conservatives, the MP said she had received numerous threatening emails, including one about her being “bricked in the street”.
It should go without saying that threats against politicians are completely unacceptable.
Two MPs have been murdered in the last 10 years, which means threats of violence – whether the intention to carry them out is genuine or not – provoke the kind of fear and distress in politicians that is difficult to fully comprehend for those of us who aren’t on the receiving end of it.
Cameron left the SNP in advance of a selection meeting to pick the SNP’s General Election candidate for her constituency. She was critical of the culture within the SNP group at Westminster, which she says left her feeling “isolated” and works through “fear and intimidation”. She says things got worse after she defended the teenage victim of unwanted sexual advances from Patrick Grady.
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 victim’s and who have shown little or no interest in acknowledging or addressing the impact.”
But whatever criticisms Cameron has of her former party and former colleagues, it doesn’t detract from the fact her constituents are now left with an MP who represents a political party they didn’t vote for.
Cameron had been the SNP MP for East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow since 2015. At the 2019 General Election, she was returned with 46.4% of the vote. Her Conservative rival in that election finished in third place, with just 21.2% of the vote share.
There is a reason why parties that look to be on the up suddenly receive an influx of ambitious wannabe politicians who are desperate to become a party representative. Regardless of the talents of individual politicians, most people cast their votes by party, not personality.
Cameron’s constituents voted for a pro-independence, centre-left party and now they’re saddled with an MP who has given her backing to the rabidly right-wing, anti-immigrant, pro-Brexit Tories. It is a bizarre decision that makes you wonder whether Cameron read the SNP manifesto before fighting three elections.
Her choice to join the Conservatives is all the more strange when you consider the fact that, as an MP, she will have seen first-hand the destruction and devastation Tory policies have caused in recent years.
Switching parties mid-term might be permissible but without that decision going back to voters through a by-election, it lacks legitimacy. The Conservatives haven’t won the support of an extra constituency in Scotland. Their numbers have been boosted because an MP seems to have changed her entire political outlook in a very short space of time.
Cameron has said she doesn’t intend to stand at the next General Election, which is expected to be held in autumn next year.
MPs represent all their constituents, regardless of their political views or party affiliation. So, on a practical level, not much will change.
The SNP have brushed off the bombshell defection, with some senior SNP figures branding Cameron’s claims of a toxic culture of the Westminster group “unsubstantiated’’. The First Minister said Cameron’s constituents would feel “deeply let down” by her actions and that she should resign.
As irritating as the negative headlines might be for the SNP, coming as they do at a time when the party doesn’t have its problems to seek, this run of bad news might help them out in the long run.
As we saw from the Rutherglen and Hamilton West by-election, the SNP’s streak of astonishing electoral success looks to be under threat. But defeat can’t help but focus minds.
The party knows it faces an uphill battle as it fights to motivate its base ahead of a General Election. It must do all it can to re-invigorate apathetic voters, hone its offering to the public and dust itself off from the recent party discord.
Political parties can approach a slide in support in one of two ways. They can become defensive and insular, ignore the warning signs of trouble up ahead and plough on in much the same way as they have been.
Or they can take a step back from their run of bad luck, analyse it objectively, and use it as evidence of what needs to change.
