FORMER MSP Bruce McFee has fired a scathing broadside at the SNP as he quits the party after almost four decades.

Mr McFee is the second veteran Nationalist to sever ties in recent weeks, following the resignation of Johnstone councillor Andy Doig.

Both men have accused SNP top brass of “McMafia tactics” and will now join forces to take on their former colleagues at the council elections in May.

Mr McFee served the Nats as a councillor in the Kilbarchan area for 20 years, as well as spending four years as a list MSP for the West of Scotland.

However, he has accused the party of becoming disconnected from its local members.

Mr McFee, who will act as Cllr Doig’s election agent ahead of voters going to the polls on May 4, told The Gazette: “The SNP seem to have lost sight of the importance of having good people on the ground at local elections.

“There seems to be a feeling within the party that it can field anyone as a candidate and people will vote for them. I think that’s a mistake.

“I’m seeing the same things in the SNP that I saw in Labour 20 years ago – that sense of complacency. I’m afraid that happens with a party that has been successful.”

Cllr Doig, who represents Johnstone North, Kilbarchan and Lochwinnoch, split from the SNP after being deselected as a council candidate.

As he quit, he claimed there had been a campaign to have him removed after he hit the headlines in 2015 amidst accusations of sexism and homophobia.

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

Cllr Doig, 55, conceded that “a lapse of judgment” on his behalf led to the email dust-up.

He was ruled not to be sexist and homophobic by a party committee in 2016 and, last month, the SNP’s National Executive Committee (NEC) upheld his council candidacy.

But the SNP leadership deselected him as a council candidate, prompting him to go out on his own – lambasting the SNP leadership as he left.

Mr McFee – a member of the SNP since the age of 16 – claims Cllr Doig has been “stabbed in the back” by the Nationalists.

He said: “Andy Doig has worked like a Trojan to carry out his council duties and, from chapping doors and talking with people, I know he is very well supported in the area.

“I stuck with the party through thick and thin but am not prepared to tolerate the disgraceful and disgusting treatment of my local councillor.

“The repeated attempts to blacken his character over a sustained period of time are not something with which I wish to be associated.

“Similarly, the NEC’s decision to unilaterally overturn his successful appeal against the falsehoods that were made against him makes a mockery to any claims of natural justice.

“There has been a clear agenda to ensure that local party members were denied the opportunity of reaching a decision on Andy’s future – that is why the NEC acted as it did.

“The vested interests simply couldn’t risk putting this to a vote as they knew that the membership in this ward would have selected Andy as a council candidate by a country mile.

“Andy has a record of hard work and service to the communities he represents as a local councillor, one of which the SNP could have been proud.

“Perhaps the increasing centralisation in the party means hard work and service is no longer considered an asset by the SNP but the people of this area still value such dedication, irrespective of their political views.

“It is my intention to do everything in my power to try and ensure Andy holds his seat as an Independent candidate so that he can continue with his good work – work that the SNP so strenuously sought to destroy.”

When asked by The Gazette for a response to Mr McFee’s decision to quit the party, a SNP spokesperson said: “We’re sorry Bruce decided to resign and we thank him for his service over the years.”