Stirling’s MSP who got here below fireplace after posting an image of herself holding an ultra-nationalist flag throughout an independence rally was simply attempting to cease it flapping within the wind, it has been claimed.
Evelyn Tweed was snapped holding a Siol nan Gaidheal flag whereas she attended an All Below One Banner march in Bannockburn on Saturday.
SNP MSP Ms Tweed posted the 50-strong group image – which additionally featured a second flag from the group and three folks carrying jumpers with its brand – to her social media.
When the affiliation was identified, Ms Tweed deleted the picture and issued an apology.
A supply near her this week instructed the Observer that she was simply holding the flag to cease it flapping in entrance of her face.
Siol nan Gaidheal, or ‘Seed of the Gaels’, was shaped in 1978. Members have been formally banned from the SNP in 1982 by then social gathering chief Gordon Wilson. Siol nan Gaidheal is an anti-English organisation who describe themselves as “ultra-nationalist”.
Ms Tweed – who her workplace declare “hooked up no significance to the flag till it was later identified to her” – was in Bannockburn to mark the annual celebration on the anniversary of the Battle of Bannockburn which sees 1000's march from Stirling metropolis centre to the Battle of Bannockburn customer centre to commemorate lives misplaced on either side of the battle. On the occasion floral tributes have been laid, following a prayer and a minute of silence.
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The photograph was snapped on the rotunda on the customer centre.
Talking to the Observer this week, Ms Tweed vehemently denied supporting Siol nan Gaidheal and defined that she attended the occasion with Bannockburn and Japanese Villages SNP members, together with Councillor Brian Hambly.
A supply near the MSP instructed the Observer: “On the finish of the occasion a photograph was organized. Simply earlier than the photograph was about to be taken a person with a flag jumped into the entrance of the image.
“Due to the wind, the flag saved flapping in entrance of Evelyn’s face so she held it to forestall it doing so.”
It was at that second the photograph was snapped, through which she is holding onto the flag.
Denying her assist for the group, Ms Tweed instructed the Observer: “I by no means have and by no means will assist any type of ultra-nationalism and, given my explicit household circumstances, it's utterly ridiculous to counsel I'd.
“I’m deeply dissatisfied that some pro-unionist politicians – who ought to know higher – took to commenting on social media with out first trying to determine the info surrounding the taking of this image.
“Within the present local weather, attempting to attain political factors by making provocative allegations which summon the net mob is deeply irresponsible.”
Mid Scotland and Fife Tory MSP Dean Lockhart was fast to sentence the snap. He instructed the Observer of his “shock”, including: “Holding the flag of such a bunch is, whether or not completed knowingly or unknowingly, an enormous insult to the 1000's of English-born residents who've made Stirling and Scotland their residence and make an enormous contribution to society.
“This all makes Ms Tweed’s apology all of the extra perplexing as she has spent 5 years as an SNP councillor and a 12 months as Stirling’s SNP MSP. If she is suggesting that she had by no means heard of Siol nan Gaidheal then that makes issues even worse.
“Stirling deserves representatives which are able to representing the entire of the constituency not simply the individuals who assist them, and the numerous English folks within the Stirling space can be terrified of the connotations of their MSP willingly or unwillingly endorsing views which threaten each them and their households.”
Councillor Neil Benny, group chief of the Stirling Conservatives, weighed in, saying: “It’s deeply worrying to see Stirling’s MSP shoulder to shoulder with a bunch that calls English folks in Scotland “white settlers”. Claiming she didn’t know what the flag she was holding represented is a really poor response from Ms Tweed, given how Siol Nan Gaidheal have a historical past in Stirling.
“We have to see the native SNP distance themselves completely from this group.”
In June 2017, throughout a weekend occasion to commemorate the battle, issues turned bitter when Siol nan Gaidheal clashed with an Irish Republican flute band.
In March 2018, an intimidatory banner unfurled outdoors the workplace of the then Stirling Tory MP Stephen Kerr. The banner was believed to be the identical as one utilized by Siol nan Gaidheal.
The banner appeared outdoors the MP’s workplace in Borestone Crescent, at St Ninians roundabout. The blue banner was draped over railings, simply yards from the entrance door of the MP’s workplace, and carried the phrases ‘Tory scum out’.
Siol nan Gaidheal didn't responded to the Observer’s request for remark at the moment.
In Might that very same 12 months, the identical banner appeared on the doorstep of the then Ochil and South Perthshire Tory MP Luke Graham.