Dunfermline MSP Bill Walker has been suspended from the SNP amid damaging allegations of domestic abuse.
First Minister Alex Salmond said the “correct action” had been taken after it emerged that all three of Mr Walker’s ex-wives have accused him of physical assault.
Two of the spouses were given uncontested divorces after alleging violence and the third claims she was the victim of domestic abuse. The claims date from the 1960s to the 1990s.
The SNP announced it has suspended the 69-year-old, who is also a Fife councillor, pending disciplinary procedures that could see him kicked out of the party.
Mr Salmond said information about Mr Walker’s troubled marital history had not been provided to the party prior to his selection as the candidate for Dunfermline in last year’s Holyrood election.
“The SNP’s rules are very clear and provide for decisive but fair action,” he said. “The correct action has been taken by the national secretary, in consultation with me as party leader, of suspending Bill Walker from the SNP and the parliamentary group pending a full investigation of the facts and circumstances. The SNP’s strongly held position is zero tolerance of violence against women.”
The move means Mr Walker has also been suspended from the SNP group on Fife Council, where he represents the West Fife and Coastal Villages ward.
Mr Walker married his fourth wife, June, in July last year at Culross Abbey. The couple have been together for 16 years.’Two sides to every story’A statement issued by Mr Walker said: “There are two sides to every story and I dispute almost entirely all the allegations that have been made against me. That is not to say that I do not greatly regret individual occasions during the break-up of my marriages.
“These relationships ended some considerable time ago and, not least for the sake of my children and wider family, I do not intend to replay those disputes publicly.”
He later told The Courier the allegations were ”outrageous” but that he could not comment further.
A Labour spokesman said: ”These are highly distressing testimonies that will alarm and disturb people. There must be zero tolerance of violence against women.”
Leader of Fife Council, SNP councillor Peter Grant, said: ”I can confirm that Councillor Bill Walker is suspended from the SNP group and currently sits as an independent councillor.”
The suspension means a disciplinary hearing into Mr Walker’s conduct will be convened by the SNP within the next month.
Consisting of nine ordinary members of the SNP, the panel will investigate the allegations and could expel him from the party if it finds he has breached the rules.
But even if that were to happen, it would not mean he would have to stand down as Dunfermline MSP, as parliamentary rules mean he could stay on as an independent.Already standing down as councillorMr Walker is not seeking re-election to Fife Council in May’s local government election.
He won the Dunfermline seat at the Scottish Parliament previously been held by Liberal Democrat Jim Tolson in last year’s election. In a result that surprised political observers, Mr Walker capitalised on a large national swing to the SNP to edge victory over Labour candidate Alex Rowley by 590 votes.
Mr Walker’s first 10 months as an MSP have already been marked with controversy after he became the subject of a row over gay marriage. Campaigners reacted angrily after he insisted that marriage between same-sex couples could not be seen as ”in any way equal” to marriages between men and women.
Last month Mr Walker welcomed the news that Fife Women’s Aid had received a £400,000 lottery grant.