THE SNP’s Westminster leader has said he will treat shamed sex pest Patrick Grady “in the exact same way” as any other of his MPs seeking re-election. 

Stephen Flynn refused to intervene in the row over the Glasgow North MP the day after it emerged he was aiming to stand again at the general election expected next year.

“I’m not going to step into any individual selection contest right across Scotland and this one applies in the exact same way,” Mr Flynn said.

The Tories accused him of ducking his responsibilities and taking a shameful "party first" approach to the affair.

The Scottish Sun yesterday reported Mr Grady, 43, a former worker for a Catholic aid agency, had told colleagues he believed he could pick up votes from local churchgoers.

Mr Grady was suspended from the Commons for two days in 2022 after being found to have inappropriately touched a male teenage party staffer on a night out in October 2016.

The MP stroked the man’s neck, hair and back in an unwanted drunken sexual advance, before the other man made it clear it was unwelcome and he stopped.

Commons watchdogs said the “unwanted physical touching, with sexual intent, from a senior MP to a junior member of staff” was a “significant breach” of sexual misconduct policy.

Mr Grady was also suspended by the SNP for six months, before being readmitted last year.

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Like other parties, the SNP is currently looking to select its general election candidates, and Mr Grady has let it be known he intends to seek the candidacy again, subject to vetting.

The young man touched by Mr Grady has said he should not be allowed to stand again, while Labour has said it would be a “scandal if the SNP turns a blind eye” to his record.

READ MORE: Sex pest SNP MP Patrick Grady 'planning to stand at general election'

Asked about Mr Grady seeking re-election, Mr Flynn said the MP had been in the wrong, but had apologised, and party vetting and his local branch would determine his fate.

He told BBC Radio Scotland this morning: “Patrick should never have touched someone on the hair and the neck and the shoulder in the way that he did. He’s apologised for that. 

“The House of Commons suspended him, the SNP group suspended him, the party suspended him.

“Of course anyone who wants to stand for election to parliament for the Scottish National Party is going to have to go through a vetting process and ultimately selection by local members.

“So it will be for the party and indeed the local membership to ultimately determine what happens.”

Asked why the SNP let Mr Grady back into the Westminster group in December, Mr Flynn said: “With all due respect, it wasn’t simply a case of me letting someone back in or not. 

“If someone’s a member of the Scottish National Party they’re entitled to sit within the Westminster Group.

“On this wider issue, it will be for the party’s vetting process to determine whether Patrick is the candidate, if indeed Patrick wants to put himself forward.”

Asked if he would support Mr Grady’s potential nomination, Mr Flynn said: “Patrick hasn’t, as I understand it, made any public comment to that effect,

“It would ultimately come down to the party’s vetting processes and then indeed the local members to decide who their candidate would be.

“I’m not going to step into any individual selection contest right across Scotland and this one applies in the exact same way.”

READ MORE: Patrick Grady's victim calls on disgraced SNP MP to quit parliament

Mr Grady’s majority over Labour in Glasgow North at the 2019 election was 5,601.

If he clears vetting, Mr Grady could yet face a selection challenge from MP Alison Thewliss, whose Glasgow Central seat is due to disappear under boundary changes. 

Scottish Tory deputy leader Meghan Gallacher said: “Stephen Flynn has followed quickly in the footsteps of Humza Yousaf and shamefully taken a ‘party first’ approach in relation to Patrick Grady.

“In his first few weeks as the SNP’s Westminster leader, he allowed this disgraced MP quietly back into the SNP’s ranks.

"Like his predecessor, Ian Blackford, Stephen Flynn has continued to put the needs of the perpetrator above those of the brave victim who came forward in this case.

“It simply isn’t good enough for him to try and avoid his responsibilities regarding Grady and whether he supports him standing again as an SNP candidate at the next election.

“Patrick Grady is not fit to be an MP and that should be an easy decision for those at the top of the SNP to take."

Mr Flynn was also asked about a wave of resignations by SNP councillors in North Lanarkshire who were punished by the party for raising concerns about a sex pest colleague, the council's former leader Jordan Linden. 

He said merely: “In relation to the situation in North Lanarkshire, if there is a solution to be found then hopefully that can be found in the immediate term.”

Ms Gallacher added: “Stephen Flynn – like Humza Yousaf – is also failing to show any leadership when it comes to colleagues in his own party who have astonishingly been expelled or suspended for speaking out about the handling of the Jordan Linden scandal.

“These members should be reinstated immediately. Yet once again the SNP prefer to engage in secrecy and cover-up, rather than doing the right thing for victims.”