Conservative MSP Miles Briggs cleared of sexual harassment

Miles Briggs MSP - Image credit: Scottish Parliament

Rape Crisis Scotland has criticised the Scottish Conservatives for their “intimidating and inappropriate” process for investigating allegations of sexual harassment following a complaint raised against one of the party’s MSPs.

Conservative MSP Miles Briggs has been cleared by the party of harassing a woman at an event earlier this year.

Briggs said the allegations were “completely false”.

He said: “I was able to supply the party’s disciplinary committee with several witness statements from individuals who were with me the entire evening and which not only challenged but contradicted these allegations and events that evening.

“I am particularly grateful to the SNP Parliamentary Researchers who were among those who support my case.”

However, Rape Crisis Scotland has raised concerns about the process used to investigate the complaint, and particularly that the woman was asked to attend a hearing at which Briggs would be able to question her about the accusations.

The charity said: “This is why women are reluctant with sexual harassment claims.

“The woman in this case faced a process which was intimidating and inappropriate.

“She was asked to attend a hearing, without representation, to be questioned by the MSP she had made the complaint about.

“When we raised concerns about this, the Conservative Party offered for her to be ‘cross examined’ by the chairman, who would put Mr Briggs questions to her, along with questioning from the rest of the committee.

“We pointed out repeatedly that an adversarial approach such as this was not appropriate in a case of this nature.”

The charity also raised concerns about the fact that even before the hearing had taken place, the party had arranged a press conference was called with Briggs for his reaction directly after the hearing, which it interpreted as meaning the result was already presumed.

Rape Crisis Scotland said it had “significant concerns” about whether the woman involved “ever had any possibility of justice”.

They added: “In our view the Scottish Conservatives need to urgently change their approach to investigating sexual harassment complaints.”

In a statement released through Rape Crisis Scotland, the woman said: “I am gutted that Miles has been found to have done nothing wrong.

“I am sad and angry that the process was so terrible that it felt as though this end result was written from very early on.”

However, Ruth Davidson has defended her party’s investigation processes.

She said that she outlined the party’s disciplinary process verbally and sent a written copy to the woman’s representative and that she also agreed to a request to have a party representative talk through it.

She said that “several amendments” to the procedure were requested, including that Briggs was not in the room, but the woman chose not to attend the hearing.

Davidson said: “Having reviewed the evidence submitted from both sides, the hearing concluded that Mr Briggs is not guilty of sexual harassment.

“This was based on several credible eyewitness statements, including some from representatives from other political parties.

“Mr Briggs was not suspended as an MSP during this process because no allegation of criminality was made against him.

“This has not been an easy process, but the party is committed to ensuring that women and men are able to report allegations of sexual harassment to us, and maintain their anonymity as they do so.

“I have confidence in the robustness of the disciplinary process the party has put in place, that those procedures have been followed in this case, and stand by the thoroughness of its impartiality.”