michelle thompson has announced you will be standing down and will not be eligible for election as ah west which she represents as an independent. 0ur correspondent is in glasgow. explained the background of her decision and what the party is doing. you will remember the background to this, the success the snp had at last westminster election, winning 56 of the 59 seats in school in. this morning the national executive committee met following the announcement of this snap general election to discuss candidate selection. in one sense they have a very straightforward decision, to put forward the 54 sitting mps that they have for candidacy for the upcoming election, but the decision they had to make was concerning the two other mps voted through as snp mps but subsequently resigned. michelle thompson and natalie mcgarry who resigned after becoming involved in police investigations. today they had that meeting and the decision was reached at the 54 would go ahead but there was no mention of natalie mcgarry or michelle thompson in the release sent out by the snp. shortly afterwards we had

michelle thompson did so amid an ongoing police investigation into property deals.ry resigned the quip following fraud investigations. since then they have been sitting as independent mps and the decision for the national executive was what to do about that. it has been a difficult issue for the snp and that was reflected in the snp and that was reflected in the statement from the party after words, with no mention of either michelle thompson or natalie mcgarry in that statement, simply mentioning that those 5a sitting mps would go ahead. we do know that they will not be candidates. subsequently, we heard from both mps. natalie mcgarry said that the decision came as no surprise to her. michelle thompson put out a lengthy statement in which she said she was very disappointed. she said she was proud of what she had achieved as an mp and she also confirmed that she had decided not to stand as an independent candidate in the seat. she also had some criticism for the snp. she said she had always made it clear that she had always made it clear that she had done nothing wr

michelle thompson, the mp for edinburgh west and the mp for glasgow east, they we re and the mp for glasgow now sit as independent mps. that is because they resigned the party whip after police became involved in police investigations. that is what the snp national executive had to talk about, what to do in those two constituencies. and as far as candidates go for the other three constituencies that they did not win last time. only three seats not held by the snp, one labour, one lib dem, one conservative. how much confidence is theirfor conservative. how much confidence is their for the other parties that they can claw back some of the ground they lost? that is what they are working towards. there is a period of frantic activity at the moment from all parties. just down the road from where the snp are meeting this morning in that central glasgow hotel, labour are holding a meeting of their own. they will be focusing on candidate selection, as well. they only have one mp, that is ian murray. he was back out on the campaign trail yesterday. he will stand again in his edinburgh constituency.

michelle obama as well. the obamas face all the questions that come with it. krista thompsoneporting when barack and michelle spoke about the break from life of the public eye but then they have started to tack into the lucrative paid speaking performance -- host: so that in "the washington post." michael in maryland. we're talking about the back and forth over government funding. what do you think? should republicans seed and to democrats' demands? -- concede to democrats's demands? michael, i'm going to have to move on. johnny, from tampa, florida, independent. caller: hello? host: you're on the air, sir. funding eah, as far as goes, i'm wanting to fund it myself because -- host: ok. i'm going to move on to tom. independent from ohio. tom, what do you think? caller: i think it's a shame that our great country has to put up with nonsense from two political parties. they can't work on nothing. it's a shame that we have to be represented by great individual like mitch mcconnell, paul ryan, schumer, pelosi. the last election i voted for my two dogs because i get more representa