SNP MP CLAIMS IMPACT OF SEXUAL HARASSMENT NOT AS SERIOUS IF VICTIM IS MALE

Patricia Gibson claimed sexual harassment is less serious if the perpetrator is a woman

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SNP MP for North Ayrshire and Arran Patricia Gibson is back in the news this week relating to sexual harassment allegations previously made against her. Although having won her appeal at the Independent Expert Panel (IEP), a submission by Patricia Gibson reveals she claimed it is “discriminatory” to say the impact of sexual harassment of a man by a woman is the same as by a male against a female.

I have written previously about her case, where the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards upheld an allegation of sexual misconduct against her. A decision she later succeeded in having overturned on appeal by the IEP. Wrapped up within her appeal victory however are revelations which ought to be career ending.

First there was an admission that she had been too drunk to fully recall what she did

“Her [Ms Gibson] evidence was (in essence) that she was intoxicated, and therefore unable confidently to recall her exact words and actions. The respondent asserted, however, that she would not have stroked the complainant in the manner alleged and would never have used the word “shag”, nor would she have propositioned the complainant.”¹

So, despite having imbibed too much to properly recall what she said or did, she still insisted the alleged conduct she was accused of never happened.

Second, as if that were not enough, Ms Gibson also took to threatening newspapers and journalists with legal litigation should they dare name her

“I would remind you of the seriousness of these allegations and your obligation to act responsibly before naming me in any story, particularly where the allegation is not true and there are significant doubts about the source of it.”²

Although being too drunk to recall, and threatening legal action against newspapers Ms Gibson did succeed in arguing the Parliamentary Commissioner’s investigation - which had upheld allegations against her - had been materially flawed. Despite all of these - in a previous time potentially career ending - admissions Ms Gibson survived and subsequently thrived. Today she is SNP Westminster frontbencher for Housing, Communities & Local Government alongside a separate brief for Consumer Affairs.

But now thanks to the Daily Record’s investigative digging, we discover yet another facet to this sordid story. The Scottish newspaper reports it obtained “extracts from a “factual accuracy check”, containing issues raised by Gibson on the original investigation.”

Patricia Gibson it seems went beyond threats of legal action against newspapers & arguing although being drunk to recall her own actions, she nevertheless knows she didn’t say or do what was alleged. Turns out the SNP Westminster frontbencher for Communities contended that sexual harassment by a female in a position of professional power over a junior male colleague isn’t as serious than if the sexes were reversed.

Shockingly, Gibson argued that anyone arguing to the contrary of her view was guilty of “discrimination” against her as a woman.

“It is discriminatory to suggest that the impact of sexual harassment of a man by a woman is ‘the same’ as sexual harassment of a woman by a man.”³

The problem for Patricia Gibson’s fumbling ‘reasoning’ is that these matters really aren’t about a persons sex or gender. It’s about power, it’s about control.

There are no hierarchies of harassment based on gender or sex. The issue is where a person has a position of professional control or power over the another. And in this case, Patricia Gibson was an SNP MP accused of sexually harassing a young male staffer. The nature of the power imbalance is clear in her case. So, it is the stuff of the fabulist to claim none of that should have mattered because she is a woman.

For Gibson to try and dismiss the centrality of power and control in relation to cases of sexual harassment is shocking. And should be disqualifying for any politician seeking to continue to sit on the frontbenches in Westminster.

If a hypothetical person guilty of perpetrating sexual harassment is a woman, the fact she is a female does not render it of a lower order of magnitude. It is ludicrous to ignore power imbalances in favour of the notion men somehow won’t feel “any kind of physical threat or vulnerability”.

That Patricia Gibson actually argued men don’t feel as vulnerable as women so cases of sexual harassment where a woman is the perpetrator is of a lesser order of magnitude, reveals a lot. Especially her claim that men can’t feel physical threats or vulnerabilities the same as female victims of male harassment. It tells us a lot about her entire psyche. Her attitude toward the whole subject of sexual harassment in workplaces seems too warped for her to remain in her current frontbench job.

And remember, Patricia Gibson was proffering up these arguments when she had been found guilty of sexually harassing a young male staffer by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards and was attempting to get that ruling overturned at the IEP. Imagine how the male complainant must have felt during this period.

To this writers mind harassment is harassment regardless of the gender or sex of either the perpetrator or victim. But apparently the SNP Westminster spokesperson for Communities disagrees.

Patricia Gibson may have won her appeal, but to me her victory ought to be pyrrhic. Her defence reveals someone too drunk with colleagues to fully recall her actions. As someone prepared to threaten journalists and minimise certain types of sexual harassment. If the SNP had any standards - any at all - Gibson would be history.

1. Independent Expert Panel (IEP), ‘The Conduct of Ms Patricia Gibson MP’, Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed 23 June 2022, https://www.parliament.uk/globalassets/mps-lords--offices/standards-and-financial-interests/independent-expert-panel/hc-505---the-conduct-of-ms-patricia-gibson-mp.pdf

2. Kieran Andrews (2021, April 22), ‘Don’t identify me, sex claim MP Patricia Gibson warned newspapers’, The Times, https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/dont-identify-me-sex-claim-mp-patricia-gibson-warned-newspapers-p2fck9bjn

3. Hutcheon, Paul (2022, 6, August), ‘SNP MP Patricia Gibson under fire over sexual harassment comments during misconduct investigation’, Daily Record, https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/snp-sexual-harssment-patricia-gibson-27668525#ICID=Android_DailyRecordNewsApp_AppShare