The Scotsman, on UK Politics, 8 November 2026

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'Insufficient evidence of wrongdoing' in Kenny Gibson bullying complaints, says SNP

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The bullying allegations against Kenny Gibson “provided insufficient evidence of wrongdoing”, the SNP has said after it was accused of failing to take action. The Nationalists said that “concerns were raised with the party” about Holyrood’s presiding officer and these were “thoroughly investigated” - but “no disciplinary action was taken.” It comes after the Sunday Mail reported that a dossier of complaints has been sent to SNP bosses by solicitors.

The SNP had been accused of failing to take action. Cunninghame North MSP Mr Gibson had represented the SNP in the Scottish Parliament for more than two decades before becoming presiding officer after May’s election. An SNP spokesperson said: “The SNP has a zero-tolerance approach to bullying in any form and takes any allegations seriously. "Concerns were raised with the party and were thoroughly investigated. They provided insufficient evidence of any wrongdoing and as such no disciplinary action was taken."

Two SNP officials in Mr Gibson’s constituency were said to have resigned over his alleged behaviour. Another 19 members, activists, and councillors signed a letter complaining about him June 2019. The complainants were advised to send statements to independent solicitor Lesley Johnston at law firm Kennedys Scotland. Mr Gibson became the Scottish Parliament’s presiding officer in May. The job pays £130,000 a year. A senior Scottish Government minister said on Sunday that the SNP took the bullying allegations against Mr Gibson “very seriously”.

Ivan McKee said that “anything would be fully investigated” by the party. The Cabinet Secretary for Public Sector Reform told BBC Scotland’s The Sunday Show: “ Of course, it does, and anything would be fully investigated. “Now, I'm not involved in running the party specifically that level, but I think it's very clear that the party, of course, would take these allegations very seriously.”

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What we found (1)

The Scotsman reports the SNP's statement that bullying complaints against presiding officer Kenny Gibson gave insufficient evidence of wrongdoing, and attributes that claim clearly throughout. The party's spokesperson and a senior minister fill most of the article in their own words. The complainants appear only as numbers and are never heard, which is a minor imbalance rather than a distortion.

  1. One side gets the space

    Minor

    “The party takes these kind of allegations very seriously.”

    Why this matters
    The Scotsman gives Ivan McKee three full sentences of quotation, and the article closes on his assurance that the party takes the allegations very seriously. This comes after the SNP spokesperson's own three-sentence statement.
    The impression it gives
    A reader hears the party's account at length, in its own words. The article ends on its reassurance that the complaints were handled properly.
    The context
    The people who complained are never quoted. Two officials who reportedly resigned and 19 members, activists and councillors who signed a letter appear only as figures. The article reports that the party was accused of failing to act, but gives no complainant's own account of why the investigation fell short.

    How we know

    • Elsewhere in the article“Another 19 members, activists, and councillors signed a letter complaining about him June 2019.”
    • Elsewhere in the article“Two SNP officials in Mr Gibson’s constituency were said to have resigned”

    Show it in the article

What it gets right

  • “says SNP”

    The headline keeps the attribution. The finding of insufficient evidence is presented as the party's claim, not as the outlet's own conclusion.

  • “were said to have resigned over his alleged behaviour”

    The article keeps the allegations as allegations. It neither convicts Mr Gibson nor dismisses the complaints.

  • “the Sunday Mail reported that a dossier of complaints has been sent to SNP bosses by solicitors”

    The article names the source of the dossier report rather than stating it in its own voice.

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