Will Blackford and Sturgeon now resign too?

The SNP likes to portray itself as the moral guardians of Scotland. But does such sanctimony extend to Westminster, where the Tories have just ousted a leader accused of ignoring allegations of sexual harassment. Amid the chaos in the Commons, Steerpike was intrigued by the silence earlier this week coming from the SNP press office. Perhaps though, that was unsurprising, given the party’s own track record on responding to such issues. 

This seems a particular affliction for the nationalist party’s leaders in London. First we had Angus Robertson, who led the party’s Westminster contingent until he lost his seat in 2017. Robertson was one of the first nats to be informed about allegations against that fallen idol Alex Salmond. Back in 2009, staff at Edinburgh airport complained that Salmond had ‘behaved inappropriately’ towards them.

Airport bosses contacted Robertson, who raised the issue with Salmond then seemed to do nothing else about it. Sturgeon herself was made aware of the complaints in 2017 but sat on them until the Salmond inquiry.