Ministers who make staff feel uncomfortable face being sacked under a clampdown on Parliament’s sex pests

Ministers who make staff feel uncomfortable face
being sacked under a clampdown on Parliament’s sex
pests, MPs have been warned.
Theresa May backed moves for a tough crackdown as
the sexual harassment scandal gripping Westminster
threatened to claim its first scalp.
International Trade Minister Mark Garnier, who
admitted calling his secretary “sugar t*ts” and asking
her to buy two sex toys, was clinging to his post after
Theresa May refused to give him her backing.
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A Cabinet Office investigation was underway to
determine whether his conduct breached the
Ministerial Code.
The PM’s spokesman refused to say whether Mrs May
had full confidence in Mr Garnier, insisting No 10 did
not want to pre-empt the inquiry’s findings.
Answering an urgent question as the crisis engulfed
Westminster, Commons leader Andrea Leadsom said
allegations against any minister would not have to
reach the criminal threshold to trigger their sacking.
She told MPs: “The issue is around those who are
made feel uncomfortable.
“I am absolutely setting the bar significantly below
criminal activity.
“If people are made to feel uncomfortable then that is
not correct.
“In terms of the consequence for the perpetrators, I
think I have also been perfectly clear.
“In the case of staff, they could forfeit their jobs.
“In the case of Members of Parliament, they could
have the whip withdrawn and they could be fired from
ministerial office.”
It came as women MPs from three different parties
lined up to highlight cases of recent abuse and
harassment targeted at female workers in Parliament.
Plaid Cymru’s Westminster leader Liz Saville-Roberts
revealed she knew of a case where a woman
employed by an MP “reported being sexually
assaulted to the proper authorities earlier this year,
who did nothing”.
She added: “She is deeply disappointed an distrustful
and she tells me that distrust is endemic.”
Recently-elected Tory MP Rachel Maclean said her
researcher had “highlighted some of the experiences
she has had in this place, and as a new MP I
definitely find that shocking and unacceptable”.
Labour’s Chi Onwurah warned that harassment
complaints made against MPs for their actions
towards researchers in a notorious parliamentary
drinking den were dismissed as typical pub behaviour.
Ms Onwurah received the response after raising
concerns that male and female researchers had been
made to feel “deeply uncomfortable” by MPs in the
rowdy watering hole.
She said: “When I complained recently to an officer of
Parliament who had some responsibility in this area
that I knew a number of researchers - male and
female - who had been made to feel deeply
uncomfortable in the Sports and Social Club here by
Members of Parliament, I was told that happens in
pubs all over the country.”
Mrs Leadsom pledged a crackdown on the bar, which
is popular with Labour and Scottish nationalist MPs.
She meets the Lords Deputy Leader tomorrow to
discuss cleaning up its wild reputation.
Promising to tackle the bar’s “specific issues”, she
declared: “There should be no place here on the
estate or in our constituency offices where people
can be abused or allegations not taken seriously.
Labour MPs feared men MPs were failing to take
seriously allegations of sexual harassment.
Backbencher Darren Jones said: “I overheard two
Members joking about this issue, asking in humour
whether they had ‘fessed up to their sexual
harassment’.
“As a man, I stand up to call that out. It is not ‘bantz’,
it is unacceptable.”
Fellow MP Jess Phillips said: “As I rushed in here
today to come to this statement, I overheard two
male colleagues walking through the halls wittering
about a witch hunt that was going on in Parliament.
The Government wants an independent support team
able to deal with allegations of sexual harassment or
abuse against people working in Parliament.
The current system for hearing complaints is
“inadequate” and the failure to respond properly risks
bringing Westminster into disrepute, Mrs Leadsom told
MPs.
Speaking in the Commons with the Prime Minister by
her side, Mrs Leadsom insisted better support and
protection for thousands of people working in the
Palace of Westminster.
Action was needed “in days rather than weeks”, she
said.

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