THE Scottish Tory leader has been accused of dealing in Westminster-style "misogyny” over comments he made about a female politician.
Karen Adam, the SNP MSP for Banffshire and the Buchan Coast, claimed Douglas Ross was attempting to “import Westminster’s culture of misogyny”.
He said Adam would “prefer to whinge” after she called out the UK Government for having “short-changed” the north-east of Scotland amid a row about the replacement for EU funds which the SNP say fall far short of what was paid pre-Brexit.
Quoted in a story about Adam’s claims in The Northern Scot, Ross was quoted as saying: “The UK Government have provided the SNP government with record block grant funding to support our communities and further investment coming to Moray.
“Yet instead of engaging constructively to ensure this money gets to where it is needed most in the north-east and Moray, the SNP representative would prefer to whinge.”
Adam hit back saying: “Douglas Ross accusing women of ‘whingeing’ when highlighting the serious failures of the Tory party and their leadership is really unworthy of politics in Scotland.
“Using tropes such as ‘nag’ and ‘whinge’ to describe women has never been acceptable, yet the leader of a political party in Scotland is more than happy to employ one of these terms when speaking with the media.”
It comes after a row about misogyny in the Tory party erupted this week following an anonymous Conservative MP telling the Mail On Sunday Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner would cross and uncross her legs to “distract” the Prime Minister.
Then the party’s chief whip promised an investigation earlier this week after it was revealed a top MP had watched pornography while sitting beside a female minister in parliament.
And Green MP Caroline Lucas secured a commitment from Boris Johnson that sexual harassment would be considering a resigning matter after she said 56 MPs were facing claims of predatory behaviour.
Adam added: “If Ross is trying to import Westminster’s culture of misogyny then he’s got another thing coming. It’s already difficult to encourage women into politics.
“Just in the last week, we’ve already seen examples of this such as watching porn on their phones in the House of Commons – gross industrial misconduct – accusing Angela Rayner of being ‘distracting’ in the workplace, and now women are ‘whingeing’.
“I think people in Scotland are really fed up of Douglas Ross and the Tories’ style of outdated politics. The difference between our parliament in Scotland and the Westminster parliament in London is stark.
“I will never accept the corrupting of our parliament. Scotland deserves better.”
A Scottish Tory spokesperson said: “Both male and female SNP representatives regularly whinge about the UK Government and the record block grants that are only possible as part of the United Kingdom.
“The problem here is nationalism, not sexism."
