Outrage at ‘tone deaf’ refusal to answer question
IAN Blackford was last night accused of being ‘arrogant and tone deaf’ after he refused six times to say whether he thought it was acceptable for a sex pest MP to remain in the SNP.
In a car-crash interview, the party’s Westminster leader would only say that Patrick Grady needed to ‘reflect on his behaviour’ after being found guilty of making unwanted sexual advances towards a teenage staffer.
It came just hours after Nicola Sturgeon described a leaked recording in which Nationalist MPs rallied round their shamed colleague as ‘utterly unacceptable’.
But in an interview with STV’s Bernard Ponsonby last night, Mr Blackford claimed he had done nothing wrong.
The Tories said Mr Blackford’s excruciating television appearance only reiterated the need for him to be sacked.
When asked by Ponsonby whether he thought a sex pest was fit to be an MP, Mr Blackford replied by saying that Parliament had to be a ‘safe place for people to come and work’.
Asked several more times whether he thought it was permissible for a sex pest to be a Member of Parliament, Mr Blackford eventually said: ‘The simple fact of the matter is, under the process, Patrick Grady was found guilty of inappropriate behaviour and he was suspended from Parliament for two days. That was a decision that Parliament took. I uphold the decisions of that parliamentary process.’
Asked again for a yes or no answer, he added: ‘Patrick Grady was found guilty and has led to a suspension of him from Parliament for two days.’
Ponsonby then asked if that meant the answer was ‘yes’, Mr Blackford said: ‘No. What I’m saying is there has to be due process in all of this. And Patrick Grady was found guilty under that process and was dealt with and suspended from Parliament.’
Asked why he had not kicked Grady out of the SNP, he said: ‘Because, at the end of the day, discipline within the SNP happens through a number of ways – it happens through actions taken by the SNP group, it happens through actions taken by the SNP headquarters and the decision that was taken on a proportionate basis…’
Challenged about his decision to urge Nationalist MPs to give their ‘absolute full support’ to Grady just minutes after they agreed not to expel him from the party, Mr Blackford claimed to have been discussing ‘procedures that the party had put in place’ and rejected the suggestion he had done anything wrong when dealing with the victim’s complaint.
Scottish Tory chairman Craig Hoy said: ‘Ian Blackford has just underlined in this arrogant, tone-deaf interview why Nicola Sturgeon has to sack him as the SNP’s Westminster leader.’
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said: ‘It’s clear, for the SNP, it’s all about protecting the top brass until the point at which they become a liability.’
‘Protecting the top brass’