Shamed former minister Mark McDonald should be suspended from the Scottish Parliament without pay for one month, Holyrood’s Standards Committee has recommended.
The committee announced the proposed sanction after considering a report by the Commissioner for Ethical Standards in Public Life, which was asked to investigate Mr McDonald’s conduct after SNP MSP James Dornan made an official complaint in March.
Committee convener Clare Haughey said the committee agreed with the findings of the commissioner that Mr McDonald breached the code of conduct for MSPs by failing to treat one woman with respect and that his conduct towards her “involved sexual harassment”.
She said the committee also agreed with the finding that he had failed to treat a second witness with respect “in relation to a financial matter”.
Ms Haughey said the committee was recommending that Mr McDonald be excluded from proceedings of the Parliament for a month with his salary withdrawn during that period.
He should also be banned from the parliamentary complex during that time and have “rights to any representational, ceremonial and related privileges” withdrawn, the committee said.
Before the recommended sanctions can be applied they will need to be agreed by the full Parliament through a motion in the chamber.
The Aberdeen Donside MSP quit his ministerial role and the SNP after admitting inappropriate behaviour towards women.
An internal SNP investigation identified “persistent” behaviour by Mr McDonald including inappropriate and unwanted text messages, unwanted attention and exploiting his position of power.
The married father-of-two resigned as childcare minister when the allegations first emerged last November and later apologised for his behaviour towards two women.
Mr Dornan had objected to his return to work as an independent MSP, stating that his presence would be a “clear negation” of the duty of care the Scottish Parliament has to its staff, and making further allegations about his behaviour towards a member of staff.
In her statement Ms Haughey criticised Mr Dornan’s decision to share details of his complaint with the media.
She said: “We consider it unacceptable that the confidentiality requirements have been flouted more than once during the course of this complaint.
“This is disrespectful to the process and those involved, as well as to the Committee and the Parliament.
“Today’s decision relates solely to the complaint regarding Mark McDonald, but the committee will return to the issue of confidentiality.”
In a statement Mr McDonald said he accepted the findings of the commissioner’s report in relation to the two breaches of the code of conduct and would accept the outcome of the full parliamentary vote on the proposed sanctions.
He said the first breach related to the same matter he had resigned and apologised over – the sending of an inappropriate social media message to a female member of staff employed by another MSP.
But Mr McDonald said he did not accept the conclusion that the message had constituted sexual harassment, releasing a screenshot of the message in question in which he comments about his phone’s autocorrect having changed the word “dingyed” to one referencing a sex act.
Mr McDonald said the second finding related to him having asked a member of staff to make a payment on his behalf, reimbursing her around 24 days later.
“I have accepted that this was an inappropriate request to make, and that I should have reimbursed her much earlier than I did,” he said.
He said the commissioner’s report had “disproved or disregarded the overwhelming majority of Mr Dornan’s complaint”.
“The manner in which Mr Dornan chose to publicise his complaint, and make lurid allegations against me, has had a significant and lasting impact upon my personal mental health and wellbeing, and has thus affected my family,” he added.
“I am grateful that these allegations have not been upheld, as I have always denied them.”
