Nicola Sturgeon condemned the behavior of her own lawmakers as “completely unacceptable” after an leaked audio recording showed some of the SNP group in Westminster uniting behind a colleague who was removed for an unwanted sexual experience with a teenage staff member.
Former party chief whip Patrick Grady was removed from parliament for two days last week after an independent commission found he had misbehaved with the 19-year-old man at a secular event in October 2016.
At a session of the Prime Minister’s FMQs on Thursday, Sturgeon was repeatedly challenged about her party’s treatment of the victim. He blamed the SNP for a series of failures in handling his unofficial, then official, complaints, which took six years to reach a conclusion during which Grady was promoted and the victim said he was abused by Westminster’s office.
Sturgeon offered to meet with the man to apologize to him in person, amid widespread frustration among SNP activists with what many see as a systematic failure to deal harassingly and equally with harassment and other complaints.
The Guardian understands that Sturgeon’s reprimand has been met with “fury” by some SNP lawmakers who believe they have been forced to take responsibility for leadership failures in both Westminster and Holyrood.
The group was reportedly threatened with criminal activity over the leak in the Daily Mail of a recording of several MPs talking about Grady, including Westminster leader Ian Blackford, who said he would “encourage the group to provide as much support as possible”. .
Sturgeon’s criticism of the leaked recording, which she said “suggests that more concern was shown for the perpetrator than for the victim”, will add strength to Blackford’s repeated calls for resignation, although most have previously taken his position to be safe because of his closeness to the first minister.
Blackford announced an external review on Tuesday night after fellow MP Amy Callaghan accused the SNP of “apparently failing” to support the complainants for sexual harassment. Grady’s victim immediately dismissed this as a publicity stunt.
In broadcast interviews Thursday night, Blackford said he would not resign and that it was up to Grady to “reconsider her behavior.”
Meanwhile, as an indicator of the strength of feelings in the SNP, a group of respected activists are planning a proposal to submit to the next party conference, calling for zero tolerance for sexual harassment and clearer and more consistent sanctions when dealing with complaints.
Grady’s victim says the way his complaint was handled – including moving him from work to the Whips office instead of reassigning Grady himself – only aggravated his stress, but that he did not believe in progress. He told the Guardian: “Any changes in party procedures will have to be adopted at a conference, which would mean that victims and politicians will have something to say, and this is not a debate that the party wants to have in public.”
In her final report to the party’s national executive committee, published last December, former SNP equality organizer Fiona Robertson warned of “years” of internal complaints still pending before officials and the current system, which is “not suitable for the purpose”. “.
This criticism is repeated by other SNP insiders, who say the party has never been involved in becoming a mass membership organization since 2014 and the consultation, transparency and accountability they require.
On Wednesday, the party’s youth wing issued an online statement calling for a review of the party’s complaints procedures at all levels and calling on lawmakers to “redouble their efforts to strengthen the atmosphere of tolerance, security and inclusion in our party.”
Another activist, who joined the party in 2019 after the referendum campaign and actively participated in the daily campaign, explained: “If we do not improve the way we deal with harassment, I am worried about how this affects our vision of independence. . Every day new members come who feel abandoned by the UK government, but how do we convince them that the SNP is not exactly like the Tories? The party has to look at itself for a long time. “
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