Margaret Ferrier: Recall petition for suspended MP opens in Rutherglen

Image caption, The recall petition will open in Margaret Ferrier's constituency

A recall petition has opened in suspended MP Margaret Ferrier's constituency.

Ms Ferrier was excluded from the House of Commons for breaching Covid rules.

More than 10% of registered voters in Rutherglen and Hamilton West would need to sign the petition for Ms Ferrier to lose her seat.

A by-election would then be held in the constituency to elect a new MP. The petition opened at 09:00 BST in up to 10 official signing places.

The petition will remain open for six weeks, until 31 July.

MPs voted to suspend Ms Ferrier from the Commons for 30 days after she spoke in Parliament while awaiting the results of a Covid test during lockdown in September 2020.

After testing positive, she took a train home to Glasgow to avoid self-isolating in a London hotel.

Ms Ferrier has already been ordered to complete a 270-hour community payback order by a court after admitting culpably and recklessly exposing the public "to the risk of infection, illness and death".

She previously said she "deeply regretted" her actions.

Ms Ferrier won the seat for the SNP with a majority of 5,230 in the 2019 election but has been sitting as an independent since losing the party whip.

Despite repeated calls to resign as an MP from many of her former SNP colleagues, she has so far refused.