{"id":119064,"date":"2023-09-22T17:19:47","date_gmt":"2023-09-22T17:19:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/yourclomid.com\/?p=119064"},"modified":"2023-09-22T17:19:47","modified_gmt":"2023-09-22T17:19:47","slug":"snp-mp-says-she-was-ostracised-by-party-for-speaking-out-against-sex-pest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yourclomid.com\/politics\/snp-mp-says-she-was-ostracised-by-party-for-speaking-out-against-sex-pest\/","title":{"rendered":"SNP MP says she was ‘ostracised’ by party for speaking out against sex pest"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The SNP\u00a0has been hit by a fresh bullying scandal after one of its senior MPs claimed she was targeted for speaking out against a sex pest nationalist colleague.<\/p>\n
Dr Lisa Cameron – who represents East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow – revealed she was forced to seek 12 months of counselling at Westminster as a result of being shunned by the party hierarchy.<\/p>\n
She said her nightmare began when she was outspoken about the party’s approach to SNP MP Patrick Grady.<\/p>\n
Mr Grady was suspended from the SNP last year for making an unwanted sexual advance to a teenage member of staff, but has since had the whip restored.<\/p>\n
Dr Cameron said she was left feeling “ostracised”\u00a0after saying that the focus should be on the victim, against a party directive to support Mr Grady.<\/p>\n
She added that it had a “huge impact” on her mental health over the course of a year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Dr Cameron, who previously worked in the NHS as a consultant clinical psychologist, told the Express: “I’ve had difficulties in the past in terms of where I’ve not toed the party line on certain things that I don’t believe in. I like to stick to my principles and people know that anyway.<\/p>\n
“But the difficulty really snowballed in the period where the sexual harassment case against Patrick Grady was ongoing.<\/p>\n
“I had spoken out in a meeting where senior people in the party were not taking a victim-led approach. And because I worked as a psychologist before I said it’s really important that we consider the victim and we need to be focused on the victim.<\/p>\n
“I couldn’t understand why that wasn’t happening but senior people were all advocating supporting the perpetrator at the time. So I was left feeling really out of step with the party after that meeting when I spoke out.<\/p>\n
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“I felt quite ostracised, there wasn’t an awful lot of people speaking to me when I was in the House of Commons from my own party, although I was speaking to people from other parties as normal. Even in the House of Commons tea room colleagues were not speaking to me very much.<\/p>\n
“I was in touch with the victim and I was trying to give him a bit of support because I felt he was very isolated. And I ended up having to go for counselling in the welfare department of Parliament for about 12 months.”<\/p>\n
Dr Cameron is now facing a challenge to remain as the SNP’s candidate in her seat, which she has represented since 2015.<\/p>\n
She said: \u201cI’m not surprised that a candidate from HQ has been encouraged to stand against me. I feel like it’s my hometown and I’ve worked really hard and we’ve done a lot locally. So I really want to continue to dedicate myself to my constituents.<\/p>\n
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“And I love the constituency work because it’s very linked with my psychology work, helping people and so that’s the bit that I really enjoy and what I like to focus on. So I want to contest the seat and obviously I’ll continue to do my very best.”<\/p>\n
Mr Grady, a former chief whip, was given a two-day ban from Parliament in June 2022 after a Commons sleaze watchdog found he made an unwanted sexual advance to a 19-year-old member of SNP staff at a social event in 2016.<\/p>\n
The Glasgow North MP admitted his behaviour and apologised “without reservation”.<\/p>\n
He had the SNP whip restored in December last year following a six-month suspension.<\/p>\n
The SNP was contacted for comment.<\/p>\n
Source: Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The SNP\u00a0has been hit by a fresh bullying scandal after one of its senior MPs claimed she was targeted for speaking out against a sex […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n