SNP treated me like asbestos, says sex-claim whistleblower
AN SNP staff member has accused the party of treating him like ‘asbestos’ since he made a complaint about two MPs.
The House of Commons worker has now withdrawn a sexual harassment complaint made to the SNP about Patrick Grady and Patricia Gibson because of his anger at the way he has been treated.
But he is continuing to pursue a separate complaint with the Westminster standards body.
He said the SNP had done ‘next to nothing’ in the five months since he came forward with his concerns.
In an email to Kirsten Oswald, the SNP deputy leader at Westminster, the staff member wrote: ‘It is clear to me the party are not yet in a position to deal with these types of complaints effectively and for those reasons, I reluctantly withdraw my complaints.’
The worker, who does not want to be identified, told the Daily Record that he was ‘extremely’ disappointed at the way the SNP had handled his complaints.
He said: ‘The SNP have handled this very badly and have done next to nothing. They have shown every interest in keeping two MPs in post.’
The SNP worker said the party’s internal processes are ‘not fit for purpose’ and he claimed to have been ostracised by colleagues, adding: ‘I feel like I am asbestos.’
Mr Grady stepped aside as the SNP’s chief whip at Westminster in March after the party launched an investigation into the complaint. The worker claims Mr Grady touched him inappropriately in 2016 in the Water Poet pub in London when he was only 19.
He claims Mr Grady perched on a couch and started putting his fingers down the back of his collar, ‘touching me inappropriately there’ and grabbing his hair.
In a complaint about a separate incident in January last year, he said Mrs Gibson, now the SNP’s housing, communities and local government spokesman, was ‘clearly very, very drunk’ in the Strangers’ Bar in the Commons and ‘was grabbing my hand, pulling me closer and saying things like, ‘‘You should come home with me’’... She was saying things that were completely inappropriate in terms of what she wanted to do when I went home with her.’
Mrs Gibson has denied the allegations and claimed two other MPs who were present have told the party there is ‘no substance’ to them.
An SNP spokesman said: ‘The wishes of complainers must always be respected, and therefore we have no further comment to make.’