Michelle Thomson, the former SNP MP who lost her party position after allegations of mortgage fraud, wants to return to politics now that she has been cleared of any wrongdoing.
Ms Thomson, who was elected as the SNP MP for Edinburgh West in 2015 only to be ostracised by her party when she was embroiled in allegations of illegal property dealing, said she would gladly return to the SNP and to frontline politics, if she was allowed to do so.
She said: “I remain committed and I would like to continue to contribute to Scottish political life and I would like to continue in a way of shaping positive change for Scotland. Ultimately I would have to accept that it would be up to the SNP. What I said during the independence referendum was that I wanted to use my skills, knowledge and drive to try and shape a better Scotland. If the opportunity came along, would I once more go into a political sphere? Yes, I would, because I meant what I said and I mean it now.”
An SNP spokesman said that the party was willing to talk to Ms Thomson about resuming her party membership but there has been no suggestion of yet of bringing her back as a candidate.
Ms Thomson spoke out after a decision last week by the Crown Office not to pursue a criminal case against her or against the other four people caught up in a property scandal which led to a solicitor being struck off two years ago.
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The Edinburgh West MP resigned the party whip at Westminster when the scandal broke, only a few months after her election, and she was de-selected by the party as a candidate. That meant she could not defend Edinburgh West for the SNP at this year’s election.
•The SNP should not have so much power vested in one couple, Michelle Thomson has said in an attack on the Nicola Sturgeon-Peter Murrell axis at the top of the party. Ms Sturgeon is the party leader while Mr Murrell, her husband, is the SNP chief executive. They effectively control most aspects of party policy and strategy. Ms Thomson said: “There is no other large organisation where that is the position. There are good reasons why you don’t have a married couple at the centre of a large organisation.”