There is something rotten at the heart of SNP
As Blackford demands a Conservative sleaze inquiry...
IAN Blackford was told to ‘clean up his own house’ last night after demanding a Tory sleaze inquiry.
The SNP’s Westminster leader was accused of hypocrisy by opponents and SNP staff for railing against sleaze in other parties despite anger in his own at the handling of complaints.
MP Patricia Gibson remains on the party’s frontbench at Westminster despite being investigated for harassment.
And Patrick Grady stood down as SNP chief whip when a complaint was made about his conduct.
Commenting on the lobbying row over Tory MP Owen Paterson, Mr Blackford said the Conservative party ‘has been overtaken by sleaze and corruption’ and cronyism ‘has rotted it to its core’.
He has also called for a public inquiry ‘into the behaviour of this Government’.
Labour’s shadow Scottish secretary Ian Murray said: ‘The public are rightly horrified, but the hypocrisy of Ian Blackford and the SNP knows no bounds.
‘He is right to say there is too much sleaze at the heart of politics, but he should focus his outrage on cleaning up his own house.
‘From botched or stifled investigations into bullying inside the party, to police investigations into the party’s finances – something is rotten at the heart of the SNP.’ Mr Blackford’s comments on Tory sleaze also sparked concerns in the SNP about how he has acted when confronted by complaints about his own MPs. Mrs Gibson, the SNP’s housing, communities and local government spokesman, is being investigated by the House of Commons’ Independent Complaints and Grievance Scheme over allegations she grabbed the hand of a worker in the Strangers’ Bar and pulled him towards her before telling him: ‘You should come home with me.’ The MP for North Ayrshire and Arran has strongly denied the allegations and claimed two other MPs who were present have told the party there is ‘no substance’ to them.
Mr Grady, MP for Glasgow North, is also under investigation after allegations he touched a young SNP worker inappropriately in 2016 in the Water Poet pub in London. Yesterday, one SNP staff member said: ‘There is a lot of hypocrisy from Ian Blackford here. You have got the SNP talking about corruption and sleaze in the Tory party, but they seem to spend more time on that than what’s going on in their own party.
They want to play politics with this issue and they don’t pay attention to what is going on in their own party, their own sleaze, corruption and bullying.’
Concerns have also been raised at the way the SNP has handled other probes. Its investigation into Derek Mackay, who resigned as Scottish Finance Secretary after being accused of bombarding a teenage boy with messages, never concluded because he quit the party earlier this year.
The SNP is still investigating MP Margaret Ferrier, who travelled from London to Glasgow after testing positive for Covid. She sits as an independent after being suspended by the party.
The SNP yesterday failed to respond to a request for comment.
‘Focus on cleaning up own house’