The SNP likes to portray itself as the moral guardians of Scotland. But does such sanctimony extend to Westminster, where the Tories have just ousted a leader accused of ignoring allegations of sexual harassment. Amid the chaos in the Commons, Steerpike was intrigued by the silence earlier this week coming from the SNP press office. Perhaps though, that was unsurprising, given the party’s own track record on responding to such issues. 

This seems a particular affliction for nationalist leaders of the party in London. First we had Angus Robertson, who led the party’s Westminster contingent until he lost his seat in 2017. Robertson was one of the first nats to be informed about allegations against that fallen SNP idol Alex Salmond. Back in 2009 staff at Edinburgh airport complained that Salmond had ‘behaved inappropriately’ towards them.

Airport bosses contacted Robertson, who raised the issue with Salmond then did nothing else about it. Sturgeon herself was made aware of the complaints in 2017 but sat on them until the Salmond inquiry. The Holyrood committee investigating the scandal found she had misled parliament, an offence for which the SNP demanded Boris’s head on multiple occasions.

Turn to Westminster and the Patrick Grady affair. After a complaint was made about the party chief’s whip behaviour towards a teenager, Robertson’s successor Ian Blackford made the victim attend a meeting with Grady to try to resolve things. The complainer said he felt ‘unsupported and ambushed’. Despite all this Grady remained chief whip with Blackford and Sturgeon retaining confidence in him.

Want to see more SNP fails? – Education Matters

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