ONE of the SNP’s MPs has been accused of using disabled people as “scapegoats” in a row over the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC).

Members of the SNP’s disabled members group have compared Alyn Smith to former Tory work and pensions chief Iain Duncan Smith over his proposals to reform the governing body.

In a leaked email last week, the Stirling MP called for a substantial reduction in the number of people on the NEC, saying the current membership of 42 made it “too big, unwieldy, unfocused and ... politically unsound”.

He went on to say that there were now a dozen people “representing one strand or another of their interpretation of the equalities agenda”.

“This is of course important, as a gay man equalities are close to my heart, but not as close as independence. I am not alone in thinking that too much of the party’s oxygen has been taken up by discussion of peripheral issues like GRA reform, with a small but vocal number of NEC members focusing on these peripheral issues, however worthy, to the exclusion of all else.” He proposed a forum to “advise and hold the NEC to account”.

On Wednesday, the MP used his weekly column in The National to try and give context to the email. These proposals would, he said, boost equalities.

Smith wrote: “Equality is at the heart of our proposition for a better Scotland, it is not either/or. A boosted, properly resourced Equalities Forum will better focus our internal discussion on how to build that case.”

He said the party needed to be “match-fit for the battles ahead, and I think we need to refocus urgently, uniting around what unites us – independence”.

The SNP disabled members group have now launched a petition to oppose Smith’s proposals.

Co-convener Jamie Szymkowiak said it was “utterly depressing to have one of our most prominent parliamentarians blame disabled representatives for any issues that he may have with the way our executive committee functions. Disabled members will not be used as scapegoats”.

He added: “Mr Smith’s claims that his proposals ‘boost the equalities discussion’, when in reality they relegate disabled people from the top-table, is a con-trick Iain Duncan Smith and Esther McVey would be proud of.

“I’m confident that the wider SNP membership, disabled people across Scotland and the general Scottish public, value the inclusion of disabled people and will support disabled members of the SNP by rejecting Alyn Smith’s retrograde proposals.”

There was support for the petition from former SNP MSP Dennis Robertson, Holyrood’s first blind parliamentarian. He said it would “send out the wrong message if disabled members’ contributions were sidelined to an alternative platform”.

Wednesday’s column also prompted a furious response from other members of the NEC.

Fiona Robertson, the SNP’s equalities officer tweeted: “People deciding they know better than the people actually affected how best to represent us, without ever bothering to ask us or even speak to us about it, is an old, old story.

“We are used to this. I’m just devastated that it’s currently coming from a colleague.”