STAFF from Ruth Davidson’s office launched a late-night attempt to distance the Tory leader from MP Stephen Crabb, who is at the centre of a series of sexual harassment allegations at Westminster.
The Scottish Tory leader’s office reached out to Laura Waddell, a writer and publisher, at 10pm on Sunday, lambasting her for a four-month-old tweet.
Using Davidson’s own personal Twitter account, the anonymous Tory worker wrote: “Laura, this is Ruth Davidson’s office. If you check the record, you will see that Ruth backed Theresa May in last year’s leadership contest, not Stephen Crabb as you have stated.
“Ruth has campaigned for LGBT rights her whole life, and, recently, for equal marriage in all the home nations of the UK, including Northern Ireland, as well as the Republic of Ireland ahead of their referendum.
“As someone who is a professional publisher, we know you would want to ensure you broadcast honestly and do [not] attribute backing to another candidate when the public record clearly demonstrates Ruth’s support of the Prime Minister.”
A confused Waddell replied: “What are you referring to? I don’t recall saying anything about Ruth Davidson recently?”
The Tory leader’s office then shared a tweet from June in which Waddell said Davidson had backed “Stephen Crabb as leader”, and that Crabb had “voted against gay marriage and anti LGBT discrimination laws”.
Davidson’s staff told the writer: “Perhaps unwittingly, your tweets are being used as evidence in discussions regarding current Westminster situation.”
Davidson did eventually back May, but when David Cameron announced he was standing down as prime minister she said she would “find it very hard to vote for anyone else” if Crabb was on the ballot paper.
She further described Crabb as her “political soulmate”, and just last week she spoke at a dinner for his local Tory branch in Wales.
Crabb is seemingly at the centre of the Westminster sexual harassment scandal. Over the weekend it was reported that the married Christian had been sending sexually explicit message to a 19-year-old woman who had unsuccessfully applied for a job in his office.
This is the second time the Preseli Pembrokeshire MP has been caught sending such messages.
In July 2016, he quit his role as Work and Pensions Secretary “in the best interests of my family” after The Times reported that he sent sexually explicit WhatsApp messages to a young woman during the EU referendum campaign.
This time around he is said to have told the woman he wanted to have sex with her.
When confronted with the messages Crabb said he said he was sorry for his actions: “We exchanged messages which talked about sex but none of it was meant seriously,” he was quoted as saying. “We met for coffee a few times and had a glass of wine once at the Commons, but nothing more.
“I accept any kind of sexual chatter like this is totally wrong and I am sorry for my actions.”
There is no suggestion Davidson knew of Crabb’s sending of inappropriate messages.
Her attempts to set the record straight surprised a few of her political opponents.
SNP MSP Jenny Gilruth tweeted: “Very odd. Isn’t she up for Political Tweeter of the Year [at The Herald’s Politician of the Year Awards] – and yet it appears she doesn’t actually run her own account. Or does she?”
Yesterday, the Tory leader took a strong line on reports and allegations of sexual harrasment in Holyrood.
She said her party had “established procedures in place to ensure people can raise concerns directly and in confidence”.
Davidson continued: “In the light of this weekend’s allegations, I have asked for those procedures to be reviewed so we can be certain that everyone who works for us feels reassured.”
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