Lara Bird was sworn in to the House of Commons on Monday after her Lara Bird MP oath criticism of the Westminster Government. She said she was travelling to the UK Parliament for the first time as the new MP for Arbroath and Broughty Ferry.
She tied the moment to her seat change and to the wider argument she made before taking it. Bird said the Westminster Government was descending into chaos again and that Scotland has been hammered by a decade of constant chaos at Westminster.
Arbroath and Broughty Ferry
Bird retained Arbroath and Broughty Ferry for the SNP in the by-election last week. Before Monday, Stephen Gethins held the seat before moving to Holyrood.
That makes her formal swearing-in the point at which the constituency’s new representative took up the job in the House of Commons. For voters in Arbroath and Broughty Ferry, the change now shifts from the count to day-to-day representation at Westminster.
Westminster and the UK Government
Bird used her first public comments around the swearing-in to list the pressures she says Scotland faces. She said there have been seven UK prime ministers in 10 years, Brexit wiped billions of pounds from Scotland’s economy, Westminster austerity cuts slashed public services, and the UK Government’s economic failure caused unemployment to rise and the cost of living to soar.
She also pledged to stand up for families in the face of Westminster chaos and to work hard every day to make the voice of people in her community heard at the highest levels. Her stated priorities are help for families with the soaring cost of living, investment for local communities, and ensuring people across Scotland can have the choice of a better future with independence.
Aberdeen South and Douglas Lumsden
The by-election result sat alongside a separate change for the SNP in Aberdeen South, which the party lost to Douglas Lumsden. The seat had been held by Stephen Flynn.
Bird enters Parliament as her party holds one seat and loses another, a split result that leaves her first task simple: turn the words she used before swearing in into constituency work inside the House of Commons.
