London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Oct 09, 2025

SNP orders sexual harassment complaints review after ‘falling short’

SNP orders sexual harassment complaints review after ‘falling short’

Party’s Westminster leader faced calls to resign after leak of comments supporting suspended former chief whip Patrick Grady
The SNP has launched an external review into the support available to staff after an MP accused her party of “clearly falling short” of supporting sexual harassment complainants.

It follows the party’s former Westminster chief whip Patrick Grady being suspended from the SNP’s Westminster group for a week, as well as being suspended from parliament for two days, over a sexual advance towards a teenage staff member in 2016.

The party’s Westminster leader, Ian Blackford, said he regretted that the complainant did not feel fully supported. He faced calls to resign this week after an audio recording in which he could be heard apparently encouraging colleagues to “give as much support as possible” to Grady was leaked.

However, he has now said that Grady’s behaviour was “completely unacceptable” and “should never have happened”. “The way that this situation has played out publicly over the last few days, including recordings from the parliamentary group, has caused distress to the complainant amongst others and I am sorry that is the case,” he said.

“We will consider all lessons that must be learned to make sure staff have full confidence they will receive the support they need. As such, I am initiating an external review of support available to staff, to sit alongside the independent advice service and independent complaints process.”

The announcement came as the East Dunbartonshire MP, Amy Callaghan issued a “wholehearted apology” after she was heard on the tape also appearing to support Grady, while failing to express sympathy to the teenage victim. “Zero tolerance can’t be a slogan, it has to be real,” she said on Tuesday.

Grady, the Glasgow North MP, told the Commons last week that he was “profoundly sorry” after the independent expert panel, which recommends punishments for MPs over bullying, harassment or sexual misconduct, found he had touched and stroked the neck, hair and back of a colleague during a social event.

Callaghan unseated the then Liberal Democrat leader, Jo Swinson, in the 2019 general election and is considered a protege of the first minister, Nicola Sturgeon. Her apology came as Scottish Labour and the Conservatives both called for Blackford’s resignation, after the Daily Mail obtained a recording of the SNP’s Westminster leader urging fellow MPs to give “as much support as possible” to Grady.

Grady’s victim, who is still employed by the party but has been signed off work, said after the recording emerged that it would be extremely difficult to return to work and is now considering legal action.

The victim, now 25, has previously described facing exclusion and “bullying” after they came forward with their initial complaint, saying: “I thought the SNP was a party of equality but after working in Westminster for six or seven years I can see now that they’re not any different.”

Callaghan’s intervention adds momentum to accusations of hypocrisy over how the party handles such complaints. Critics have compared Grady’s treatment with that of the MSP Mark McDonald, who resigned as children’s minister and was suspended by the party after he was found to have sent inappropriate messages to women, and Derek Mackay, who resigned as finance secretary and was also suspended from the SNP after sending hundreds of messages to a 16-year-old boy.

Last year, the party was convulsed by a lengthy Holyrood inquiry into the Scottish government’s botched handling of sexual harassment allegations after former first minister Alex Salmond was cleared of sexual assault charges.

A woman who made sexual assault allegations against Salmond later described the Holyrood inquiry as “in many ways more traumatic” than the trial itself.

In a statement posted on Twitter on Monday, Callaghan said she took “full accountability for the hurt and disappointment I’ve caused, not least of all to those directly impacted by sexual misconduct in this case”.

On the recording, Callaghan reportedly tells her fellow SNP MPs at last week’s group meeting “we should be rallying together around him to support him at this time”.

She explained in the statement: “I believed I was in a situation where my support of survivors was implied. I was wrong. This isn’t good enough.”

Callaghan added that she had written to the Westminster party’s chief whip calling for a “root and branch review, commissioned by an independent external organisation, of our internal misconduct and harassment structures”.

Earlier in the week, the MP Joanna Cherry, who has been an outspoken critic of Blackford’s leadership style, posted on Twitter: “I wasn’t at the SNP Westminster group meeting last week. I don’t condone the covert recording or leak. However, for some time the SNP has had significant problems in how it handles complaints.

“My party needs to reflect on the contrast between the treatment of different ‘offenders’ and to review our arrangements for the pastoral care of complainers.”

A spokesperson for the SNP Westminster parliamentary group said it accepted the recommended actions from the independent expert panel: “We welcome Mr Grady’s apology and note that he previously apologised for this incident when the matter was dealt with informally in 2018.”
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
×