The Westminster Parliament lost two friends of the Kurds last night, with the rout of the Scottish National Party (SNP). Chris Stephens was MP for Glasgow South West, and Tommy Sheppard was MP for Edinburgh East. Both were on the left of the party’s political values, but fell short against the traditionally leftist Labour Party, which many vocal opponents feel has been stripped of all traditional Labour values.
They lost their seats as Scottish voters showed their frustration with the SNP as a whole, which has been in power for a long time in the Scottish Parliament and is accused of corruption and incompetence. The map of Scotland has turned red, but at the expense of socialist MPs.
Stephens was secretary of the SNP’s trade union group and fought hard for workers’ rights, as well as being the instigator of numerous Early Day Motions (written statements signed by MPs) on behalf of the Kurds. Sheppard, addressing his party’s drastic loss at the polls dropping from 48 seats to nine, an even steeper proportionate defeat than the conservatives measured, said:
“There are a large number of people in my constituency and throughout the country who offered their vote to the Labour Party because they were so sick and tired of the Conservative government they were prepared to do anything to get rid of them.”
Sheppard was originally an active member of Labour but resigned when the party moved to the right. He has spoken and written articles in support of Kurdish issues, and also met with Kurds in Strasbourg as a delegate to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), advocating for an end to Turkey’s isolation of Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan.
