SNP chief's right-hand man denies any wrongdoing as details of lockdown wedding trip emerge
29.01.2023 - 07:43
/ dailyrecord.co.uk
The right-hand man of the SNP ’s new leader at Westminster travelled across two council areas and flew to Northern Ireland at the height of the Covid pandemic, it has emerged.
Coatbridge MP Steven Bonnar – parliamentary private secretary to Stephen Flynn – went on a four-day trip to Belfast days after Nicola Sturgeon increased restrictions amid fears that the virus was getting out of control.
Shamed sex pest MP Patrick Grady, the party’s chief whip at the time, was aware of the plans despite knowing the advice given by the First Minister was to stay at home.
In a message sent to Grady, Bonnar set out details of the November 22, 2020, journey and wrote: “Other than my office, my nearest and dearest and you in your role as chief whip, nobody else is aware of my trip.”
The email, passed to the Sunday Mail, shows that Bonnar claimed he was obeying the rules as he was attending a friend’s wedding, which was included in the list of exemptions.
However, he also told Grady he would be attending a wedding reception, which was banned at the time in both Northern Ireland and Scotland.
Bonnar said he would be collected from Belfast Airport by the groom on November 22 and would travel to a residential address in County Down.
He told Grady he would be going to the wedding on November 23 and be travelling back to his accommodation “at end of the wedding reception”.
Bonnar claimed he would not be leaving his accommodation until November 25, to catch the boat from Belfast to Cairnryan.
Two days before Bonnar made the trip, Sturgeon moved 11 local authorities into Level 4 restrictions, closing shops and banning people from socialising indoors. Those areas included North Lanarkshire, where Bonnar lived, and Glasgow, where he travelled from.
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