Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has backed the Prime Minister on setting up processes to catch “sex pests” in Parliament and other workplaces as the allegations of abuse at Westminster spread from female members of staff to current and former female MPs.
One Liberal Democrat MP who left parliament in 2015 told Felix Magazine that harassment and indecent propositions “were going on all the time in the Commons.”
“I don’t consider myself to be at all attractive but sharing a cab back to my flat with another MP I was definitely propositioned,” said the former MP, who asked not to be named. “Admittedly we’d both taken a drink or two but in the cab he suggested he accompany me back to my flat for what he called ‘afters.’ I took that to mean sex of some sort and was quickly sober and said a firm ‘No’.”
Former Cabinet Minister Maria Miller said she “experienced far more sexual harassment as an MP than in my 20-year career in advertising and marketing”.
Cabinet members are believed to be among the MPs branded “not safe” in taxis and lifts or “very handsy” by Westminster staff members who have set up a “Whatsapp” group to share warnings about MPs following high-profile allegations of sexual assault and rape against the Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein.
Speaking on an LBC radio phone-in hosted by London Mayor Sadiq Khan, Corbyn was adamant that people who had been sexually harassed “should report their allegations.”
Backing the PM
“The PM has announced that she supports, which I agree with her on, a process by which staff of any MPs from any party can and should report these matters to the Commons authorities,” Corbyn said. “Because where there is an unequal power relationship in the workplace and women became vulnerable because of it, they have to be supported and they have to be protected.”
“I say this to any employer who is listening: make sure you have processes in place that any of your staff who feel they are being abused by a more powerful colleague, then you have to have a process for dealing with it.”
He stressed that Labour had a separate system whereby party members or staff working for party officials, MPs and councillors could report if they felt they had been abused in any way.
Parliament launched a confidential hotline for staff to report incidents of harassment and bullying in 2014, after a series of complaints about Westminster’s working environment by current and former employees of MPs.
Corbyn and Theresa May’s support for reporting harassment followed reports that a number of MPs had been named on the secret encrypted social media site as “sex pests to avoid” by female staff. That came after the Harvey Weinstein scandal, which has opened the floodgates for women to talk about sexual harassment in the workplace. More than 50 women have come forward to accuse the Hollywood film mogul of lewd acts and rape and their example has prompted similar action in other industries and organisations.
Weinstein has denied non-consensual sex.
Westminster’s Shame
Researchers, secretaries and aides in the Houses of Parliament are said to have issued the warnings about senior male staff as well as MPs. The allegations could prompt a deeper investigation into overall behaviour deemed to be “unacceptable” at Westminster.
While the “usual suspects” are said to be well-known to those working in Westminster, the list was recently updated to bring new recruits and staff up to scratch on “younger names.” A member of the women’s group told one newspaper that ”there have been some surprising young names crop up.”
Another said that women working in parliament actively protect each other from notorious politicians. “For years we have all looked out for each other,” she said. “It’s like so-and-so is hiring, but it can’t be a woman for him.”
Some of the more astonishing allegations include stories of MPs enjoying sex sessions with staff inside parliamentary offices. Tory peer, Baroness Jenkin, revealed that a fellow MP had stroked her neck as she spoke of how “men used to hit on you all the time”, when she began her career.
And Conservative MP Theresa Villiers – a former Cabinet Secretary for Northern Ireland – said she had to fend off groping hands at a Conservative party function in the 1990s.
by Bob Graham
The post Politics: Corbyn Backs PM on “Sex Pests” appeared first on Felix Magazine.
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