POLL: More than 75 per cent of voters say Fergus Ewing's punishment was unjustified
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More than 1800 people have responded to a poll launched online by the Inverness Courier asking whether or not it was justified to suspend Fergus Ewing from the SNP for voting against the party line or not.
On Wednesday, Mr Ewing was provisionally suspended from the SNP for one week, that will take effect after 14 days if he does not appeal, for voting against Greens Scottish Government minister Lorna Slater in a confidence vote.
The results were resounding – of 1835 people who voted in the poll 75.6 per cent felt the punishment was unjustified, a resounding endorsement of Mr Ewing’s argument that he was faithfully representing his constituents.
Just 21 per cent thought that he deserved the week’s suspension and 3.4 per cent were undecided.
The result shows that at least among those who took part the SNP is not aligned with the public – a dangerous place to be for a political party heading into an election year – which based on these results is fully behind their MSP.
