Nicola Sturgeon has claimed it would be “deeply inappropriate” to comment on reports two SNP MPs have had complaints of sexual harassment upheld against them.
The First Minister also dodged the question of whether Patrick Grady and Patricia Gibson should be suspended.
As revealed by the Daily Record last year, a male SNP staffer at Westminster alleged sexual harassment by the two parliamentarians in London.
He said Grady, MP for Glasgow North, had touched him in the city’s Water Poet pub in 2016, and claimed that North Ayrshire and Arran MP Gibson had pestered him in Westminster’s Strangers Bar four years later.
She has vehemently denied the claims.
A investigation was started by Westminster authorities and the Sunday Times reported at the weekend that sexual harassment complaints against both MPs had been upheld.
The matter has now been referred to an independent panel.
Asked at her party’s council election manifesto launch for her reaction to the complaints of sexual harassment being upheld, and whether the MPs would be suspended, Sturgeon said:
“Obviously I’m aware of the press reports around this.
“This is a process that is still on-going - I’ve not seen any report and I’ve not seen any findings - and it would be deeply inappropriate, legally, to comment any further, given the stage of this process.”
Grady stood aside as chief whip after the claims were published by the Record, but Gibson remains her party’s housing spokesperson at Westminster.
The Record revealed this morning that an unnamed SNP MP had given evidence against Gibson in relation to the allegations.
The MP is understood to have said her behaviour had been inappropriate.
Scottish Conservative MSP Annie Wells said: “There is an onus on Nicola Sturgeon to be as transparent as possible on these claims, but it appears she is completely unwilling to do so, despite reports of the complaints being upheld.
“That sort of attitude will only put off anyone coming forward in the future to report these sort of incidents as they will have lost faith in the SNP leadership to tackle them seriously enough.
To sign up to the Daily Record Politics newsletter, click here.
