Oh dear, oh dear, another don’t do as I do.....it seems Mr Ian Blackford MP chose to leave his tax payer funded home in London three days after lockdown. He travelled 600 miles to Skye in order to isolate away from his wife Ann who has a lung condition.
His Tweet on the 26th - Returned to Skye from Westminster but into isolation as a precaution away from Ann and everyone else given the prevalence of the virus in London.
Article does not say where his wife was at this time, I sincerely hope he hadn’t left her in London whilst he fled the virus himself....Oh, but it’s ok because MPs had the right to return to their homes. Three days after lock down ?? Tut tut Mr Blackford and there are you calling for DCs resignation or sacking...pots and kettles ?
Every MP who does not have their main home in London has accommodation paid for by the tax payer, so he is not unique in that. He is probably one at least 500 or more in this position, with the exception of the Sein Fein MPs who do not take up their seat in Parliament.
As far as I am aware MPs are not furloughed and have been free to attend parliament, social distanced of course, during this period when appropriate, and therefore free to travel to and from their place of work. Some have. Robert Jenrick, for example, choose to relocate his family to his 2nd or 3rd home while he continued to attend Downing Street and Parliament, travelling back and forth from that home as necessary. There have been various MPs in Parliament over the period, Jacob Rhys-Mogg, for example, whose constituency is in Somerset and has attended parliament.
The only crime that he has committed seems to be that he stayed for 3 days before returning to his family home. I suspect that he was not the only one who did not return home immediately, and may have had outstanding work to complete, and of course he could have travelled back and forth from Skye if he had felt it was necessary. He, however, has appeared to remain on Skye for the whole period, attending parliament from his home via video link.
With regard to self isolating when he got home, I think that was the sensible thing to do. He did not have or suspect he had the virus, but to safeguard the health of his wife (who I assume lives on Skye as his tweet seems to indicate), and in view of the amount of MPs who contracted the virus, it was reasonable to just in case. I would hope that all MPs returning to their main home would have taken similar action in order to protect their families.
The difference between Ian Blackford was that he didn't think he had the virus and is free to travel to and from his place of work, just as Dominic Cummings has travelled to and from work before his trip to Durham and following his return.
If people are unhappy with Ian Blackford's actions or indeed any MP whatever their politics, the party can reprimand them if they think its necessary but ultimately it is the responsibility of their local constituency party to deselect them or voters in their constituency not to vote for them.
