She walked into a trap she had laid and sprung all by herself
ASPARSe First Minister’s Questions yesterday and an awkward First Minister. Nicola Sturgeon came under the spotlight for the SNP’s handling of the Patrick Grady affair.
Instead of the usual ruckus, an uneasy hush gripped the chamber, interrupted only by an occasional nervous cough.
Douglas Ross asked whether Sturgeon believed ‘every victim of sexual harassment should be fully supported’.
‘I believe that very strongly,’ she replied. ‘When a victim of sexual harassment considers that that has not been the case, whatever organisation is involved should reflect very seriously on that.’ Whatever organisation is involved. Calmly and careful not to appear partisan, the Scottish Tory leader questioned why Patrick Grady – ‘who has been found guilty of sexual harassment’ – still retained the backing of the First Minister.
In a quieter register than we have become accustomed to, Sturgeon said: ‘Patrick Grady’s behaviour was wrong. I have said it before and I will repeat it. I am very sorry that a member of the Westminster SNP group staff was subjected to an unwanted sexual advance.’
THIS was not an answer, which is probably why Ross looked so fidgety in his seat. Sturgeon’s even tone could not distract from the obvious deflection deployed at the tail end of her answer. ‘The issues are not unique to the SNP,’ she intoned. ‘All parties have faced such issues and all parties have been criticised for their handling of them. We all have lessons to learn.’
Surprisingly, Ross did not take the bait and stuck to his line of inquiry on the sanction issued by Westminster and replicated by the SNP. ‘Two days is an insult,’ he told the chamber, before quoting the complainer’s thoughts about the party’s handling of the incident.
In that vein, Ross asked for her ‘reaction... when she heard the leaked recording in which Ian Blackford encouraged SNP MPs to support the guilty party instead of the victim’. This is the infamous audio file which has caused such consternation in the party ranks at Westminster.
Sturgeon conceded: ‘What I have heard suggests that more concern was shown for the perpetrator of the behaviour than for its victim. That is utterly unacceptable.’
This was Sturgeon at her most unguarded, being frank about the failings of her own party, something she almost never does. Once again, her attempt at contrition was undermined by a pivot back to blame-spreading.
‘All parties have faced such situations,’ she lectured Douglas Ross. ‘Two Westminster by-elections are happening because of behaviour by Conservative MPs.’
Ross was less forgiving this time. ‘We have two by-elections today because Conservative MPs have been suspended and have resigned from Parliament. Patrick Grady has been suspended for 48 hours.’
That was the tell, the unmistakable signal that Sturgeon had been thrown off her game. Ordinarily, she would know better than to walk into a trap like that. This one she had devised and sprung all by herself.
So she lashed out. ‘If he is really saying that it is somehow a problem that is unique to the SNP, I would argue that he is demonstrating that he does not understand the systemic society-wide nature of the issues.’
Douglas Ross didn’t say this. He didn’t even suggest it. It was a straw man and while the First Minister was content to knock the stuffing out of it, this betrayed her. Sturgeon at her best is a far more accomplished demagogue than this.
Anas Sarwar followed with his interrogation, until Alex Cole-Hamilton broke the tension with a question about the crisis in health and social care. It may have marked the first time Nicola Sturgeon welcomed scrutiny of her record on the NHS.