A VETERAN SNP councillor launched a scathing attack on the party's leadership today as he quit the organisation after 38 years.

Andy Doig, who joined the SNP in 1979 and previously served as Assistant National Secretary, blasted top brass for what he termed "McMafia tactics."

The 55-year-old deputy leader of Renfrewshire's SNP group has quit after he was controversially deselected as a council candidate ahead of the local authority elections in May.

Councillor Doig, who has represented the Johnstone North, Kilbarchan and Lochwinnoch ward since 2012, claims there has been a campaign to have him removed from the party after he hit the headlines in 2015 amidst accusations of sexism and homophobia.

The claims stemmed from Cllr Doig writing and sending what he termed "a satirical spoof email" about SNP colleagues to two SNP members.

Now, as he turns his back on the party he joined as a 17-year-old, he has lamented changes within the organisation - and vowed to thrive as an Independent councillor, "free from the shackles of party politics."

Cllr Doig said: "I am sick of the McMafia tactics being used against me by the party I used to love.

"I have always served my constituents to the best of my ability, regardless of their own political views, and it is they I serve before any party political machine.

"I will now sit on Renfrewshire Council as an Independent councillor and will continue to represent them with the same dedication, vigour and commitment as ever."

Cllr Doig, a married dad who has an Honours degree in Divinity, has conceded that "a lapse of judgement" on his behalf led to the 2015 email dust-up.

He was ruled not to be sexist and homophobic by a party committee in 2016 and, last week, the SNP's National Executive Committee (NEC) - made up of the party's elected office bearers and six elected members - upheld his council candidacy.

But the SNP leadership have now deselected him as a council candidate, prompting him to go out on his own - lambasting the SNP leadership as he leaves.

He added: "It is in the public domain that, in a lapse of judgement, I composed a satirical spoof email in 2015, lampooning other SNP members.

"I apologised for this, both publicly and, to most of those mentioned in the email, privately.

"The Oxford Dictionary defines satire as 'the use of humor, irony, exaggeration or ridicule to expose and criticise people's stupidity, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues'.

"The SNP Disciplinary Committee suspended me as a member for sending the email for four months and then allowed me back into the party, both as a member and, most importantly, as a local councillor.

"They could have given me a harsher sentence but did not.

"A year ago, the SNP Appeals Committee found I was guilty of a lapse of judgement but, crucially, found I personally was not homophobic or misogynistic, that I had not composed the spoof email with malice and that I did not intend it to be made public.

"I gave instructions in writing to the two SNP members who received it to delete it, however one did not, and distributed it against my wishes into the public domain."

Cllr Doig, who is married to fellow SNP councillor Audrey Doig, who represents Houston, Crosslee and Linwood, believes the email kickstarted a campaign to have him removed from the party.

He said: "Right back to 2015, the SNP leadership wanted to get me in a night of the long sgian dubhs.

"Firstly, the SNP Business Convener, Derek MacKay MSP, suspended me over the spoof email, despite not having the authority to do so.

"The then-SNP National Secretary, Patrick Grady MP, who did have the authority to suspend me, did not write to me directly to notify me of my suspension. He confirmed my suspension in an email sent to a third party.

"These actions were unconstitutional in terms of the SNP Constitution and Rules.

"At my SNP Appeals Committee hearing in January 2016, I was shown a redacted email claiming I intended to send out my initial spoof email to the media, which was a complete lie.

"Partick Grady MP showed this to the SNP Disciplinary Hearing but withheld it from me, so the whole basis of the action taken against me by the SNP in October 2015 is based on a lie which the SNP leadership did not allow me to refute."

Cllr Doig claims there has been a recent campaign to have him removed from the party after he was deemed fit to continue as a councillor, only for the decision to be reversed a week later.

He added: "On February 1, I attended an appeal meeting in SNP HQ, with three MSPs in attendance.

"Following a lengthy discussion, the Appeals Committee of the NEC found that my appeal against being deselected as a council candidate was upheld.

"Yet on February 7, the National Secretary, Dr Angus MacLeod, and the rest of the NEC overturned their decision.

"I am sure I will not be alone in scenting a vendetta here.

"I very much regret leaving the post of SNP Depute Group Leader on Renfrewshire Council as my fight is not with my former colleagues but with the SNP leadership.

"It is the SNP leadership which has perpetrated this miscarriage of justice.

"In all conscience, I cannot remain within a party which is happy to use private emails to smear me and which now operates in such an authoritarian manner.

"Sadly, this is not the party I joined in 1979."

Cllr Doig, who has worked in addictions support for a charity over the last decade, was a founder member of the Young Scottish Nationalists in 1981.

He was also a leading member of the SNP's left-wing '79 Group' and served as SNP Assistant National Secretary between 1992 and 1996, under leader Alex Salmond.

Cllr Doig was a SNP Westminster candidate in 1987 for Glasgow Pollok and, in 1997, stood for Clydesdale, where he took the SNP into second place.

In 2005 and 2010, he stood against Labour big-hitter Douglas Alexander in Paisley and Renfrewshire South.

He has also stood for the SNP in Scottish Parliament elections, losing to Wendy Alexander in Paisley North in 2007 and to Hugh Henry in Renfrewshire South four years later.

An SNP spokesman said: “The National Executive Committee considered that Mr Doig was not a fit and proper person to represent the SNP at the coming election.”