MARK McDonald’s return to Holyrood will stop women coming forward to report sexual harassment, an MSP has warned.
The ex-SNP politician is back in the Scottish Parliament today, for the first time in four months.
He has insisted that he is “morally justified” to stay on as the MSP for Aberdeen Donside, despite the protests of fellow politicians, constituents and even the First Minister. McDonald said he was ready to “come back and atone” for past mistakes.
But yesterday other MSPs moved to try and block his return.
In a letter to parliament bosses, James Dornan called for his former colleague to be banned from the building. Allowing him in would be a “clear negation of the duty of care that the parliament has to all its members of staff,” Dornan wrote.
He added that his own staff member had suffered a stroke leaving her hospitalised and sick for months, in part because of the advances of the north east politician.
McDonald will make a noisy entrance when he comes back to the Parliament, hosting a press conference in the middle of the building this afternoon. Over the weekend, he gave interviews to the Sunday Post, Holyrood magazine, STV and the BBC.
The impact has left former colleagues seething.
“He’s an arrogant, selfish, dangerous, moron,” one SNP MSP told The National. “I could almost forgive him if he kept his head down and just got on with it, but he’s coming back all triumphant. It’s an embarrassment.”
The SNP’s internal investigation into allegations made by three women identified “persistent” behaviour including inappropriate and unwanted text messages, unwanted attention and exploiting his position of power.
Another MSP told us she was concerned that some of the more serious accusations had been overshadowed by the row over texts.
“The subsequent allegations were much more serious – involved an abuse of power to an employee, unwanted inappropriate attention and seriously unprofessional behaviour.
“These cannot be airbrushed out of this just because the narrative around texting is the one that has risen to the surface.
I’m just really concerned that certain people are claiming the texts are the sole basis for the action taken. It’s that kind of misrepresentation that will stop women ever coming forward.”
Parliament officials yesterday confirmed that McDonald is to be given a temporary office in the building’s Upper Basement, near the bike shed, at least until the next recess when “permanent office moves will take place.”
In an interview with the BBC, McDonald said a by-election campaign would not have given him a chance to show his constituents that he has rehabilitated.
McDonald said: “Morally I can justify it because, as I have said, my approach to this has been to own the mistakes that I have made but to demonstrate that I have learned from them and that I am capable of changing as a result of those.
“I am asking people to afford me that opportunity, and I hope that people will do that.
“I accept that many relationships are going to have to be rebuilt – some people will want nothing to do with me and I have to regretfully accept that, but there are some people who I think will want to offer me that opportunity to demonstrate that I’ve learned from this and that I’ve changed. I want to be able to demonstrate that my behaviour has changed and I am not sure that doing that through a by-election campaign is the appropriate way to do it.”
Meanwhile, Keith Brown became the latest senior SNP member to call for McDonald to go.
He told Good Morning Scotland: “If you concede the point that you have acted inappropriately and you think that has been sufficiently bad that you have to resign as an SNP MSP, I think the logic of that means that you should resign as an MSP as well.”
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