The Scottish National party’s chief whip at Westminster has stood down after a formal complaint about a sexual harassment allegation was made against him. A party source said Patrick Grady had voluntarily but temporarily stepped aside late on Tuesday night. His decision came after a number of sexual harassment allegations emerged against him and, separately, an unnamed female SNP MP. Grady, the MP for Glasgow North, was named on Tuesday by the Herald , which reported concerns by party employees that he was being protected by the party and that complaints against him were not fully investigated. The party denied that was true. Officials said no formal complaints about alleged misconduct had been made against Grady until late on Tuesday, when one was submitted and he immediately volunteered to stand aside. He has not been suspended as an MP or SNP member. “The SNP has received a formal complaint. That now allows due process to take place and we will not be commenting further while an investigation is under way,” a spokesperson said. Reports that unnamed SNP MPs had been accused of sexually harassing party staff on multiple occasions several years ago emerged earlier this week, following Nicola Sturgeon’s testimony to the Alex Salmond harassment inquiry at Holyrood. One SNP employee was reportedly angry at Sturgeon’s insistence the party took sexual harassment complaints very seriously, and alleged the claims at Westminster had been underplayed or ignored. The Herald reported that Grady had been accused of inappropriate behaviour towards two male researchers at the SNP’s Christmas party at the Phoenix Artist Club in London in December 2016. Letters about the incident were reportedly sent to the then Speaker of the Commons, John Bercow, in December 2017 and early 2018 following a #MeToo scandal that had emerged at Westminster in late 2017. The Speaker’s office forwarded them to the party’s compliance unit for investigation, but a Westminster source said those letters were anonymous and no formal complaint was made. That meant the claims were impossible to investigate under the party’s procedures. The Herald quoted one letter stating that SNP staff members were worried about coming forward because “he is protected by the party”. The employee allegedly harassed by Grady subsequently left the party. Separately, a current SNP employee alleged Grady inappropriately touched him on the neck at the Water Poet pub in London in October 2016. Grady and the official were called in to a meeting by Ian Blackford, the SNP Westminster leader, and Grady apologised. The same employee also accused an as-yet-unnamed female SNP MP of inappropriate behaviour in 2020. But the employee said he then had to pass on his concerns to Grady, because he was chief whip. The employee said he complained to party headquarters but no clear action was taken. The female MP has reportedly denied the allegations. The Herald quoted the first letter to the Speaker’s office, dated December 2017, which it said had been signed by “concerned staff members”, which said: “This matter in relation to repeated sexual misconduct is widely known about within Westminster and the SNP group, however, given his position and despite a supposed tough stance against harassment, Patrick Grady is being protected and his behaviour is supported.” Critics of the party’s response contrast that with the SNP’s decisions to immediately suspend the membership of the then Scottish finance secretary, Derek Mackay, in February 2020 after it emerged he had been sending suggestive texts to a teenage boy; the suspension of the junior minister Mark McDonald in late 2017 over claims of suggestive conduct towards women; and the suspension of the parliamentary candidate Neale Hanvey over antisemitic messages in November 2019.