TWO sitting SNP MPs will face off in a battle to claim a Glasgow seat, it has emerged.
Alison Thewliss is planning to challenge David Linden for his Glasgow East seat, after her Glasgow Central seat was erased by boundary changes.
It comes despite sitting MP Patrick Grady’s Glasgow North seat set to become vacant at the next election because he did not submit himself for vetting after he was previously revealed to have made unwanted sexual advances on a teenage staffer.
Glasgow North will be renamed Glasgow West and the boundaries within the city take its total number of MPs down from seven to six.
Thewliss’s team were unable to explain why she will contest Linden’s seat when approached by The National on Thursday.
The news, first reported by The Times, will be perceived as showing fault lines in the SNP Westminster group, with Linden a key ally of Stephen Flynn.
Thewliss was the Aberdeen MP’s only challenger in a leadership contest after Ian Blackford was ousted from the role.
But one SNP MP played down talk of a rift within the group, saying Thewliss was the subject of “forces beyond her control”.
Speaking to The Times, Linden insisted he would fight to hold onto the seat.
He said: “I’ve been the MP for Glasgow East since 2017 and 65% of the current electorate I’ve got makes up the new seat.
“I’m going to focus on fighting for independence, fighting plans for increased capacity at the landfill in the east end and getting on with the job.”
In an interview with The National in 2017, Linden described Thewliss as his "best friend", after he left a role in her office to become an MP himself.
He said: “It’s one of the privileges of my life to say I have been working with my best friend for the past two years. We’ve known each other for a decade and there’s something about us being together and bouncing ideas off each other.
“We’re in neighbouring constituencies as well, so we’ll need to work together on common issues.”
