SNP councillor suspended over ‘homophobic email’

The SNP’s Andy Doig has resigned as a Holyrood candidate and been suspended from the party over some allegedly homophobic comments about a gay minister, which he insists were intended as “humerous”.

The Sunday Herald reports that the would-be selection for Renfrewshire South has stepped down just a week after winning a five-way battle to represent his party.

An email he wrote in July is said to be the cause of the problem; with the paper suggesting he referred to a female SNP activist in a “very misogynistic” and “nasty’ way, and also took aim at transport minister Derek Mackay, who came out in 2013.

A source said: “It’s positive thing that the party won’t put up with this nonsense.”

Doig is reported to have explained away the email as a “spoof press release” not meant to be read by anyone other than two close friends.

He had been backed by Mhairi Black (pictured with him, above) and Kirsten Oswald, two of the SNP’s most popular MPs, and now says: “I want to fight to clear my name and get back into the party that I love.”

The 53-year-old is also quoted by The Gazette as saying: “Humour is a very personal thing and I accept that what one person finds humorous another may find offensive. This was a private spoof press statement, not intended for public consumption.

“I recently welcomed on Twitter the vote in Ireland for same sex marriage and one of the main political campaigns I was involved in in the later 1980s was to stop the closure of the Women’s Aid refuge in Falkirk. So I refute charges of misogyny and homophobia.”

He will face a party disciplinary hearing to determine whether his membership will be restored.

The 2016 Scottish Parliament election is due to be held on May 5. Renfrewshire South, a marginal Labour seat, has been named as one of SNP’s key targets.