Labour MP slams party’s handling of sexual misconduct claims as second complaint lodged
Labour MP Charlotte Nichols says there is a ‘rotten culture’ in Westminster
A Labour MP has criticised her own party’s handling of allegations including sexual misconduct amid reports of a second formal complaint against her colleague Geraint Davies.
Mr Davies was suspended on Thursday following claims of sexual harassment from five women and the first formal complaint to the party came later the same day.
Then on Friday, a sitting Labour MP also filed a formal complaint against him, Sky News reported.
Swansea West MP Mr Davies has said that he does not “recognise” the allegations, first reported by the website Politico.
The second formal complaint came to light hours after Labour MP Charlotte Nichols said there was a “rotten culture” in Westminster, and suggested there had been times when her party could not “keep our own house in order”.
Ms Nichols, MP for Warrington North, who was first elected in 2019, told BBC Radio 4’s The World At One: “When I first came into Parliament, literally within my first week there was a list of names, about 30 MPs on it.
“People I was told to – you know – do everything I could to make sure that I wasn’t alone with, to never accept a drink from, to not get in a lift with, people that their bad behaviour is so widely known, and so little action has been taken about this, that really it’s left to individuals to try to keep themselves safe as far as possible by staying out of the orbit of these people.”
She added: “It wasn’t a written list, it was a verbal one… there were, there are Labour MPs on it.”
A Labour spokesperson said the party urged people with complaints to come forward so they can be investigated and action taken.
Ms Nichols said: “But this is something that has been widely known about in Westminster, the behaviour of a range of different colleagues, but none of the systems and procedures that we have in place are effective for tackling these problems where they arise.
“Fundamentally, there is an underlying absolutely rotten culture at Westminster and this is baked into every level of how the institution operates.”
She went on: “Everyone is very keen to point the finger at other parties, and to use these things as political point-scoring, but no one actually wants to look at their own parties and what they are, or actually not doing about this.”
When the party whip was suspended from Mr Davies there had not been a formal complaint, “but the Labour Party have always said that they are unable to act in the absence of formal complaints”.
“And yet here they were doing just that, which suggests to me in the other cases … that the party have chosen not to act.
“And that is something that, as someone who wants us to be better, to do better, and to be part of modelling what Westminster needs to do, when we can’t even keep our own house in order, it’s really upsetting both on a personal and on a professional level.”
She also told the programme in some cases where people had been sexually assaulted, Parliament’s Independent Complaints and Grievance Scheme had said it could do nothing because it didn’t happen on the Parliamentary estate.
A Labour Party spokesperson said: “We would strongly urge anyone with a complaint to come forward so that allegations can be swiftly and fully investigated and action taken.
“The party has ensured that there is a wide range of support available to complainants, to provide confidence and confidential guidance throughout the disciplinary process.”
Mr Davies will have the whip removed in Westminster, meaning he will sit as an independent MP, while a review is carried out.