A Scottish MP has been arrested and charged after travelling 350 miles following a positive covid test.
Margaret Ferrier, formerly the SNP member for Rutherglen and Hamilton West, who had the whip withdrawn after the incident came to light, travelled from London to Glasgow on September 29 after testing positive for the virus.
The Metropolitan Police had originally determined that Ms Ferrier would not face prosecution because self-isolation regulations were not in place when she received her test on September 26.
However, on Monday evening, Ms Ferrier, 60, was arrested and charged by Police Scotland with “culpable and reckless conduct”.
The authority said that it could not comment further on the case but confirmed that the arrest had followed a “thorough investigation”.
Ms Ferrier, 60, had travelled to London on a Monday, despite exhibiting symptoms that could have pointed to Covid-19. She was tested in Glasgow and was informed that the results were positive.
She then returned north, a total journey of 700 miles, during which time, it is alleged, she could have infected fellow passengers.
It is also alleged that Ms Ferrier was a reader at Mass in Glasgow while exhibiting symptoms, though further comment on this matter has not been available.
First Minister and leader of the Scottish National Party Nicola Sturgeon demanded that Ms Ferrier resign as an MP.
However she insisted that she continued to serve her constituents and now sits in the House of Commons as an independent. The news of Ms Ferrier’s arrest broke just as mainland Scotland entered into a renewed full lockdown.
Meanwhile, places of worship are to be closed on the Scottish mainland until at least the beginning of February, according to new lockdown regulations introduced last Monday by the Scottish Government.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said that the measure are necessary to control the spread of a new mutant strain of Covid.
It is also understood that the measures will hope to address a widespread flouting of existing regulations over the Christmas and New Year period, during which socialising often broke social distancing advice and multiple households met to celebrate.
Schools will also be closed for the same provisional period, raising further questions about how senior school qualifications will be assessed in session 2020/2021.
For the moment, the Scottish islands remain in a lower tier, but Ms Sturgeon made clear that this would be regularly reviewed. Infection rates in Scotland remain significantly lower than in London and the South East, standing at somewhat over 200 per 100 000 population, as opposed to an estimated 900 per 100 00 in the UK capital, but Scottish clinical director Jason Leitch confirmed that this figure was almost bound to rise, given the virulent new strain of covid currently circulating.
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