PMQs: Alba MPs ESCORTED OUT of Commons after major disruption

After a Tory MP was given the first question, shouting could be heard from the opposition benches - where the Alba representatives were staging a pro-independence protest.

The pair expressed their fury over Johnson ruling out granting a Section 30 order while his Cabinet fell apart around him last week.

A furious Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the speaker of the House, could be seen angrily telling MPs to "shut up for a minute".

As the shouting continued, Hoyle then named two MPs - Neale Hanvey and Kenny MacAskill - and told Parliament's Serjeant at Arms to escort them out of the House, however, it appears that they left of their own volition.

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MacAskill could be heard trying to raise a point of order and appeared to say “we need a referendum”, before he was drowned out by other MPs.

Speaking to STV after PMQs, MacAskill said that it was a "democratic outrage" that Scotland has a mandate for independence that the UK Government refuses to honour. 

It comes after both Alba MPs wrote a letter to Johnson which asserted that “Scotland’s voice will be heard” in the face of a discredited Prime Minister’s continuing veto over a Section 30 order.

As Johnson stood to answer his first question, he could be seen waving his arm at the opposition benches telling them to quieten down. 

As the camera panned out, MacAskill can be seen standing on the benches behind SNP members and pointing across the chamber. 

The shouting continued with Hoyle adding: “Order, Order, I say to the honourable gentleman I will not tolerate such behaviour.”

The Commons chamber erupted into applause, as Hoyle added: “If you want to go out go out now, but if you stand again I will order you out, make your mind up. Either shut up or get out.

Hanvey was named by Hoyle and told to leave the Commons

“I warn the honourable member that if…shut up a minute…give me the names please.”

A staff member beside Hoyle can then be heard saying “get them out”. 

“I now warn the honourable members that if they resist to comply with my order to withdraw I will be compelled to name both of them which may lead to them being suspended from the House," Hoyle added. 

“Kenny MacAskill’s gone," a clerk said, before naming Neale Hanvey. 

Hoyle then told the Serjeant at Arms to escort them out of the Commons but moments later he told the Serjeant to “let them out”.

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During the rowdy exchange, no SNP MPs stood to intervene or object to Hanvey and MacAskill being told to leave the chamber. 

In a statement round just two minutes after PMQs kicked off, a letter signed by former SNP MPs Hanvey and MacAskill to Johnson was circulated.

It reads: "The decision taken by you, in the dying days of your Premiership, to reject out of hand the request for a Section 30 order which would allow a consented and legal independence referendum to take place is an egregious affront to Scottish democracy and to the people of Scotland."

They added: "As the self-styled 'Minister for the Union' you must recognise that this Union is a voluntary one, and was meant to be a union of equals, as such it can only be maintained by consent  of the people of Scotland. 

MacAskill was also told to leave by the Speaker

"You should be in no doubt that holding Scotland’s democracy hostage is something which the people of Scotland will not put up with."

The letter added that Scotland will "not be held hostage" within a Union "completely detached from the needs, realities, and aspirations of her people".

They added: "We urge you once again to honour the Scottish Government’s extant mandate to hold a consented and legal Scottish independence referendum but put you and your successor on notice that the refusal to respect Scottish democracy is not a defensible or sustainable position for the UK Government. 

"The Scottish people and their elected representatives will continue to assert their democratic rights through popular demonstration and continuing Parliamentary initiatives. The question of Scottish sovereignty will not be denied and Scotland’s people will ultimately prevail."

Later that day, Alba leader Alex Salmond backed his two MPs. He said: “It is unacceptable that what Scots voted for democratically last year should be blocked undemocratically this year.

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"For as long as this veto remains in place Johnson and his Tory successor require to be faced by both parliamentary interventions at Westminster and popular demonstration in Scotland.

"All Independence supporting MPs should be prepared to stand with Neale Hanvey and Kenny MacAskill and indeed be prepared to play Parnell with Westminster until such time as Scotland’s national rights are respected.”

Charles Stewart Parnell was an Irish nationalist politician who led the Home Rule movement with a calculated policy of obstruction in the Commons. 

SNP MP Joanna Cherry, the pair's former colleague, tweeted to draw a comparison between angry reactions to their demonstration and the relaxed approach to the Prime Minister's lies in the Commons.

"Whatever you think about the interventions of @eastlothianmp & @JNHanvey at #PMQs the reaction & the rage shown towards them contrasts sharply with the seeming inaction in the face of repeated lying by the PM at the despatch box," she wrote.

One Alba supporter wrote online: "So proud that at least two Scottish MPs are determined to have Scotland's voice heard.

"The speaker's reaction was comical - and he kept having to ask for their names - didn't even know them. What does that say about Scotland's place in the UK?"