Nicola Sturgeon has defended two of her MPs against Tory claims that they “disrespected” the military on an Armistice Day visit by drinking excessively.
Tory Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has been accused of “political game playing” in an attempt to smear senior SNP MPs David Linden and Drew Hendry as drunkards on a political visit to armed forces in Gibraltar.
The two nationalist MPs have angrily denied an Ministry of Defence briefing that along with a Labour MP that they were “drinking heavily” on an flight to the overseas territory.
Wallace has been branded a hypocrite for trying to stitch up the two SNP MPs in an Armistice Day scandal to distract from the sleaze allegations lapping around Boris Johnson’s government.
Sturgeon said on Wednesday that the two SNP MPs had been “dragged in unfairly” to try and cover up for Tory woes.
She said: “I think there have been allegations made against two of my MPs that they say are completely false and unfounded and some may say is as an attempt by Conservatives to distract attention from their own travails.”
“I know Drew and David well, they say see these allegations are unfounded and that is something I’ve got confidence in.”
Wallace has written to the SNP and Labour to express his “disappointment” that the pair were drinking and argumentative with MoD personnel on arrival in Gibraltar.
Wallace said: “This behaviour puts military personnel in a difficult position and risks undermining respect for Parliament.”
It was reported the MPs were part of a 15-strong all-parliamentary delegation on the trip, and had been “drinking heavily” during the flight to Gibraltar. The claims are emphatically denied by the two MPs.
In an increasingly bitter briefing war it was then claimed two Tory MPs on the trip, Ben Everitt and Christian Wakeford, were alleged to have gone out until the early hours and turned up hungover at an event the following day.
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