Math Campbell-Sturgess has withdrawn from the 2026 election race after facing questions over an explicit account on Fabswingers.com looking for ‘threesomes’
Cllr Math Campbell-Sturgess, who represents the Cardross, Helensburgh and the Rosneath Peninsula on Argyll and Bute Council, has withdrawn as SNP candidate to face Labour’s Jackie Baillie in the Scottish Parliament election next May.
By Bill Heaney
The SNP candidate for Dumbarton and Helensburgh has withdrawn from next year’s Holyrood election after a Sunday newspaper uncovered his links to an online ‘swingers’ profile.
Nicola Sturgeon ally Math Campbell-Sturgess, 42, was selected to contest Scottish Labour deputy leader Jackie Baillie’s Dumbarton seat earlier this year.
But he stepped down after being asked about the account on Fabswingers.com looking for ‘threesome’ partners for a man and a woman who go by the pseudonym ‘Scotsbicouple’.
The Scottish Mail on Sunday said the profile on the website, used to organise sex meet-ups, displays highly explicit images showing a woman posing in her underwear and performing a sex act.
Mr Campbell-Sturgess, who was the founder of the Scexit campaign group English Scots for Yes, is also a councillor for Helensburgh and Lomond South on Argyll and Bute Council.
The newspaper said he initially denied it was his profile and suggested it might have been an impersonator account. However, he then changed his response and said “everyone is entitled to a private life” and insisted he had “done nothing wrong”.
He added: “This experience has placed huge stress on myself and my family, and I have therefore chosen to step back from candidacy at this time.”
Mr Campbell-Sturgess and the SNP have not said whether he would remain as an Nationalist councillor. His Facebook and X accounts were both deactivated on Sunday morning.
“The public rightly expect their elected representatives to behave in a way that upholds the dignity of public office – and many will be deeply shocked by these revelations. The SNP must urgently explain how this was allowed to happen.”
The Mail on Sunday says the account Scotsbicouple on website Fabswingers.com has been in use for a number of years and had been accessed as recently as Wednesday.
The profile is said to list the users’ interests as adult parties, group sex, making videos, role play, swingers clubs, taking photos, threesomes and voyeurism. The MoS said it had “chosen not to print some of the more obscene activities”.
It goes on to praise the woman’s capabilities in the bedroom and states: “We’ve had a few meets and parties now, have some experience under our belt.”
The profile says that ‘M’ uses the Scotsbicouple account and the woman tends to use her own, called PictiiWitch. But it states: “We won’t usually meet serpately [sic] until we get to know you.”
The pair have received good reviews from other swingers, with one fan writing: “What a meet, would love to see what we could all do in warm surroundings.”
The MoS said a reporter approached Mr Campbell-Sturgess in Helensburgh on Thursday to check the validity of the account. Asked ‘Is this your profile?’, he said: “No.”
Asked if he “firmly denied” it was his profile, he responded: “It’s not my profile.” But just hours later, both the Scotsbicouple and PictiiWitch profiles were deleted.
Presented with this fact, Mr Campbell-Sturgess then admitted the account was the woman’s and she had deleted it. He said explicit images were not of him.
On Saturday, Mr Campbell-Sturgess said: “As your readers will appreciate, everyone is entitled to a private life. I have done nothing wrong and reject any suggestion otherwise. However, this experience has placed huge stress on myself and my family, and I have therefore chosen to step back from candidacy at this time.”
On his council webpage, it states that he works as a caseworker in the Scottish Parliament for SNP MSP Stuart McMillan. He also works as a self-employed designer of “Norse-themed” jewellery and leather goods.
He was often pictured with former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and other leading SNP figures. Having served as an SNP councillor in Greenock from 2012 to 2017, he crossed the Clyde to Helensburgh from 2022.
A spokesman for the SNP said: “We have been informed of his decision to step down as a candidate.”
- It is for reporting news such as this that SNP and Labour councillors on West Dunbartonshire Council, one of whose colleagues was jailed for hoarding pornographic pictures of children, have gone along with lies alleged by officials and members of the SNP without adhering to the proper procedures and imposed restrictions on The Democrat reporting public affairs locally and failing to adhere to their pledge about honesty and transparency in local government. One Labour councillor threatened us for supporting campaigners to keep Balloch Library open. It is time that ban was lifted. The electorate here deserve better from their public representatives. And the local authority continues to leave itself open to being labelled a nest of hyporites.