Tory MSP Annie Wells facing week-long ban from Holyrood

Conservative MSP Annie Wells faces being suspended from Holyrood for five days.

Members of the Scottish Parliament’s Standards Committee have agreed sanctions should be imposed on her after they agreed she had “sought political advantage” by making comments on a report before it was published.

The ban still has to approved by MSPs in a vote, with Ms Wells, the Scottish Conservative equalities spokeswoman, to be barred from proceedings after that.

It comes after SNP MSP Gail Ross complained the Tory had “sought political advantage by making advance public comment” on a report by the Parliament’s Equalities and Human Rights Committee on the issue of prisoner voting prior to the report being published.

Bill Kidd, convener of Holyrood’s Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee, said Ms Wells had breached the Code of Conduct for MSPs by doing so.

He said: “The committee considers that the breaches justify the imposition of sanctions on Annie Wells.”

Two former MSPs, Liberal Democrat Mike Pringle and Conservative Brian Monteith, were both banned for a week after they leaked information.