SNP MP cleared of bullying Nadine Dorries

An SNP MP has been cleared of bullying former UK government minister Nadine Dorries.

Ms Dorries had complained about John Nicolson's behaviour in a Commons committee and tweets about her that he had posted, liked or retweeted.

The liked tweets included references to Ms Dorries being a "vacuous goon".

An independent expert panel said Mr Nicolson had not been shown to have breached parliament's bullying and harassment policy.

He had appealed to the panel after an investigation by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards upheld the complaint against him that had been made by Ms Dorries.

The panel said the commissioner, Daniel Greenberg, had failed to take into account that the bullying and harassment policy was not intended to "prevent vigorous opposition to the government".

It also said he had not taken into account Ms Dorries' own record of tweeting, which the panel said was relevant when considering whether it was reasonable for her view of Mr Nicolson's conduct as bullying.

And it said the commissioner had failed to consider that Ms Dorries had made similar complaints in the past which had been dismissed, and had not fully examined the chronology leading up to the her complaint against Mr Nicolson.

The panel's report said: "A close examination of that evidence might have shed light on the true subjective reaction to the tweets on the part of the complainant, and whether her reaction was reasonable.

"For those reasons, the decision had to be set aside".

However, it said similar behaviour between MPs and staff members, or between MPs in different circumstances, might be breaches of the bullying and harassment policy.

It added: "Anyone who experiences behaviour not in line with the parliamentary behaviour code will have their case considered on its own individual merits."

The panel also said Mr Nicolson had been "unwise" to like or retweet some of the tweets in question.

The commissioner's decision to uphold Mr Dorries' complaint had gone against the recommendation of the investigator assigned to the case, who concluded that Mr Nicolson had not breached the bullying and harassment policy.

In his appeal against that decision, Mr Nicolson - a former BBC journalist - told the independent panel that the complaint was "political and personal" rather than genuine.

He said it had been made because he had been "effective in exposing the complainant's weakness as a minister and exposing problems with her own record, which might militate against her being accorded a peerage".

Ms Dorries' allegations included claims that the Ochil and South Perthshire MP had tweeted, liked or retweeted disparaging material about her 168 times over a 24-hour period in November 2021.

The liked tweets were said to have included descriptions of Ms Dorries as being "grotesque", "as thick as two short planks" and a "mendacious, vacuous goon".

She also claimed to have been "ragdolled" by Mr Nicolson during exchanges in a meeting of the digital, media, culture and sport committee.

She was the secretary of state for that portfolio at the time, while Mr Nicolson is the SNP's spokesman.

Ms Dorries recently announced that she would be standing down as a Conservative MP after blaming "dark forces" for removing her name from Boris Johnson's resignation honours list.