Female Labour MP accuses shadow minister of sexual assault & senior staff member keeps job despite allebations of groping

[IwantToRetire]

A female Labour MP has reported a shadow frontbench MP to the Metropolitan police, claiming he sexually assaulted her.

The alleged incident is said to have taken place after a summer party in London in July 2021. But the MP decided to approach the Met in recent weeks, the police have confirmed.

She is reluctant to make a formal complaint through Labour’s own independent complaints system, although she was encouraged to, as she felt his popularity within the party would not help her case.

The female MP is said to have spoken to Labour whips over safeguarding issues and concerns about a “wider pattern of behaviour”.

Full report here https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/may/11/female-labour-mp-accuses-shadow-minister-of-sexual-assault

&

Labour MPs lambast own party after senior aide who allegedly groped intern keeps job

The party came under fire from its own MPs and activists unimpressed by its reported handling of claims made about a senior member of staff.

According to the website Politico, Labour took three years to investigate a harassment complaint against the man.

He is said to be an aide to a current shadow frontbencher and some 20 years older than the woman who lodged a complaint about the alleged incident, which took place while she was working as an intern with the party.

Two separate inquiries upheld the allegation, Politico added, claiming that a parliamentary inquiry led to the man being told to write a letter of apology, while Labour’s own process saw him issued with a “final written warning”.

The woman was only told this month her complaint had been upheld, the Politico report added, and claimed she had heard other accounts of inappropriate behaviour by the same individual.

Full story https://uk.style.yahoo.com/labour-mps-lambast-own-party-195304636.html?guccounter=1

WTF?

I saw this a few hours ago. It’s just terrible.

Not massively widely reported as yet though? LOJ is all over it on twitter but he absolutely hates Starmer rather than cares about women being assaulted.

It's completely outrageous.

It really is. I feel for the women and I hope they’re ok

You know what, I am somehow unsurprised.

The fact she feels unable to make a complaint through Labour's internal systems is appalling but unsurprising.

This is awful for the woman concerned, and all women in the party - who will not feel safe. It's also crap for the men in the Shadow Cabinet who were not responsible. This thread will get pulled if we start speculating about who the guilty party was but, the clues in the article narrow it down to a handful of men, who will now all come under suspicion.

You would think that Starmer, as an ex-Very Important Prosecutor, might have had some concept of the trauma to a victim of no action being taken against her attacker, and of the harm that insinuations of guilt can do to innocent people.

Contrast the firm action he has (rightly) taken against anti-Semitism with his repeated failure to protect Labour women.

This is confusing. Isn't this two separate allegations made and they are being mixed up?

So far as I can make out, there was a complaint made in the summer of 2021. The MP female MP reported it to the Whips and was encouraged to make a formal complaint. She preferred not to do this and has recently made a complaint to the Met, but has now withdrawn it and the investigation has been stopped. Labour say they have received neither a report from the Met or an official complaint. I'm not sure what action they can take without them.

However, there is criticism of another complaint made by an Intern against an Aide that apparently took 3 years to investigate. It can't be the same case: three years ago is 2020, the year Keir Starmer became Leader, though it's not clear exactly when the incident occurred. The complaint has been upheld and the man has received a final warning. A shadow minister has said he intends to raise this, but also says the disciplinary action is a matter for the man's employer, not the party.
That seems to be the case that Politico is reporting.

Have I read that right? It's been reported by the Guardian and the BBC as well.

This is confusing. Isn't this two separate allegations made and they are being mixed up?

Sorry if you are confused. They are 2 separate stories about the treatment of women in the Labour Party.

Didn't think I should start 2 threads.

That's why they is an & between each story, and to different web links.

It just points to the fact that irrespective of which party they all have a problem with men in their party sexually harrassing women. And it seems each party as just as bad as the other in making women feel they can complain.

But in the instance of the Labour Party it is disgusting that more Labour women aren't making sure that the Labour Party not only understands but acts on complaints of sexual harrassment.

But as we know it is the usually double standard. The Labour Party (like the Tories) only takes action to appease whichever faction within the Party needs to be appeased. And that is never women.