McDonald is handed Scots Parliament’s toughest punishment

Mark McDonald was suspended from Holyrood yesterday as the former Early Years Minister was given the toughest punishment handed down since devolution.

The MSP for Aberdeen Donside, who was found to have sexually harassed a parliament worker, saw 101 of his MSP colleagues vote to ban him from the Scottish Parliament for one month without pay.

They voted overwhelmingly to back the standards committee’s recommendation that Mr McDonald be banned from Holyrood between September 3 and October 2.

He stood down as Childcare Minister after allegations first emerged about his behaviour in November and later quit the SNP after an internal investigation.

The commissioner was asked by the committee to investigate Mr McDonald’s conduct after SNP MSP James Dornan made an official complaint in March.

The investigation concluded Mr McDonald breached the code of conduct for MSPs by failing to treat one woman with respect and his conduct towards her “involved sexual harassment”.

However, six SNP MSPs abstained from the vote – including the two deputy presiding officers, Christine Grahame and Linda Fabiani.

In the wake of the vote, Mr McDonald said: “I said I would accept the decision of parliament and that is what I intend to do.”

He added that he hoped when he returned to the Scottish Parliament in October – 11 months after he quit as Early Years Minister when an initial complaint was made about his conduct – he would be able to move on from the controversy.

“My intention is, now that the sanction has been decided, I will serve that period of suspension.

“I will come back and I hope at that point I would not have to continue to look back at this period.

“I appreciate and understand there are people out there affected by my conduct, I’ve apologised to these people.

“I want to demonstrate that I’ve reflected on that conduct and committed to better conduct.”