An MSP was flanked by security guards whilst being ejected from Holyrood’s debating chamber yesterday following a furious bust up with the presiding officer.
Labour’s James Kelly had attempted to make a point of order about the controversial Trade Union bill but refused to sit down despite being asked 11 times to do so by Tricia Marwick.
He was barred from proceedings yesterday afternoon and will not be allowed into the main chamber until tomorrow.
Mid Fife and Glenrothes MSP Ms Marwick said: “I asked him repeatedly to sit down, and he wouldn’t do so.
“It was discourteous to the chair and that’s why he was excluded.”
The issue was being debated after Ms Marwick rejected a bid by government ministers to lodge a legislative consent motion against the bill.
Both Labour and the SNP oppose it and the Scottish Government has said it is looking at other ways to challenge it.
Mr Kelly said he wanted to raise a point of order, asking if the legal advice the presiding officer had been given was open to challenge.
He initially accused the presiding officer of repeatedly interrupting him.
A number of other Labour MSPs raised points of order to protest after he was ejected. Ms Marwick and Mr Kelly did not acknowledge each other as they walked past in Holyrood’s garden lobby, just minutes after the exchange.
Outside the chamber, Mr Kelly said: “I wasn’t allowed to make [my] point because the presiding officer kept interrupting me. Fair enough, originally, to say ‘what’s your point of order’ but, when I was going to make it, she then interrupted it again.
“I think she interrupted at least three times. I wasn’t able to carry on with my point of order. She asked me to sit down, that was another, she then threatened me with expulsion which was completely absurd. I think it’s been mishandled.”
This is the harshest punishment handed out to any MSP in 10 years.
Four Scottish Socialist MSPs were stripped of a month’s salary after staging a sit-in and bringing proceedings to a halt for almost an hour in 2005.
Labour’s Michael McMahon was banned for one day in 2012 for shouting “you’re out of order” at Ms Marwick.