Patrick Grady quits SNP amid ongoing investigation into sexual harassment claims

SNP MP Patrick Grady has resigned his SNP membership as the Metropolitan Police conduct an investigation into a sexual harassment claim that led to him being censured by a Commons Independent Expert Panel.

Earlier this month the Glasgow North MP made a public apology in the House of Commons after the panel suspended him from parliament for two days after the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards ruled he had breached parliament's sexual misconduct policy during a work event in 2016.

The Metropolitan Police have confirmed they are investigating the incident, which involved a junior member of SNP staff, leading Grady to resign from the party over the weekend. He will remain in the Commons as an independent.

While the SNP's Westminster leader Ian Blackford was criticised after he was heard rallying support for Grady in a leaked recording from a party meeting, the SNP said that Grady is "stepping away from his party membership while the police inquiry continues”.   

It comes two weeks after Grady, who was ordered by the panel to make a public apology, told the Commons that he offered his apologies "without reservation", noting that his behaviour had caused "distress and upset". 

"On the 20th of October 2016, at an SNP social event, I made an inappropriate physical advance to a junior member of SNP group staff," he said.

"My behaviour and the intent behind it was a significant breach of the behaviour code and the sexual misconduct policy of the UK parliament.

"The breach was aggravated by a considerable disparity in age between myself and the complainant and further aggravated by excessive consumption of alcohol on my part."