SCOTTISH Conservatives are urging Ian Blackford to explain why no action was taken after sexual misconduct allegations were made against a senior Nationalist MP four years ago.
John Lamont, the Tory MP for Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk, has today written to the SNP leader at Westminster to ask why accusations against Patrick Grady, the party’s Chief Whip, were not acted upon.
The backbencher has asked three key questions, including whether or not the SNP will now suspend Mr Grady, who represents Glasgow North, and an unnamed female MP, who has also been accused of sexual misconduct.
Mr Lamont noted that claims of complainers being “too scared” to come forward because Mr Grady was “protected” must be “urgently and honestly” investigated.
"The SNP's Westminster leader Ian Blackford and other senior figures have some serious explaining to do,” declared the Borders MP.
"We now know that party employees raised concerns about the chief whip's alleged sexual misconduct as long ago as 2017; yet nothing appears to have been done.
"The suggestion that Grady was ‘protected’ by the party is chilling and must be urgently and honestly investigated; not the usual SNP cover-up.”
He went on: “This appears to go to the very top. If Blackford knew and did not act, what about Nicola Sturgeon and Peter Murrell?
"In my letter, I have asked a number of key questions about Grady and the other SNP MP who faces similar sexual misconduct allegations.
"One question,” Mr Lamont added, “is about whether these two MPs will be suspended by the SNP while these matters are investigated.”
In response, a spokesman for the SNP insisted the party had "followed due process and taken appropriate action at every stage," noting how the SNP National Secretary had now had a formal complaint notified to him and so would "investigate accordingly".
He added: "But we will take no lectures from the Conservative Party who have a frankly appalling record when it comes to handling complaints - such as the decision to readmit two suspended MPs ahead of a vote of no confidence in Theresa May, refusing to suspend an MP arrested on suspicion of rape, and hushing up an investigation into a senior MSP until he was cleared in a process heavily criticised by Rape Crisis Scotland."
Earlier, this week when asked about the Grady case, the First Minister said: “I would have had an awareness previously of a concern but not a formal complaint."
This followed a newspaper report that Alex Salmond, Ms Sturgeon’s predecessor, raised concerns with her about Mr Grady three years ago.
Last week, The Herald revealed it was Mr Grady who faced an accusation of sexual harassment but had not been fully investigated by the party despite multiple reports raising concerns about his alleged behaviour.
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