The SNP has been plunged into fresh disarray with a second member of its Westminster frontbench team sacked in the space of a week, after donating to a fund set up to sue another nationalist MP.
In an extraordinary move, Neale Hanvey, the MP for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath, paid into a crowdfunder to enable barrister Sarah Phillimore to sue Kirsty Blackman, the former deputy leader of the SNP at Westminster.
The escalation in SNP infighting less than three months before the Scottish election comes after Joanna Cherry was fired as the justice spokeswoman on Monday. That followed a series of rows with the leadership on issues including trans rights and independence.
Phillimore, a feminist activist, has raised more than £20,000 from the crowdfunder. She plans