Labour activist was
A LABOUR activist has claimed she was raped at a party event but felt discouraged from reporting it in case it damaged her career.
Bex Bailey, 25, a former member of the party’s National Executive Committee, said it took her two years to pluck up courage to tell a senior official about the attack.
But she said speaking to the official was a “cold, horrible experience” and that she received no support or guidance, adding: “I don’t think I was even given a cup of tea.”
Ms Bailey spoke out amid a spate of allegations of sexual harassment engulfing Westminster in the fall-out from the Harvey Weinstein scandal.
She was 19 at the time of the rape, which she said happened at a Labour Party gathering in 2011.
The alleged attacker was not an MP, but an individual senior to her.
Calling for an independent body to be set up to deal with such issues, she told BBC Radio 4 PM programme she felt too disturbed to report the incident straight away.
She said: “I was scared, I felt ashamed. I know that the Labour Party, like any family, loves a good gossip and I didn’t want people to know. And I also was worried that I wouldn’t be believed if I did.”
When she finally did talk about the rape, she said she did not get the help she needed.
The official she spoke to warned her taking the matter further could be bad for her career, she claimed.
She added: “I wasn’t given good advice. I wasn’t given a procedure when I asked for it so that I could see what would happen if I did report it and then make a decision.
“It seemed to be that there wasn’t one that existed and I wasn’t signposted to anyone else that could help me in terms of a charity or anything like that. I don’t think I was even given a cup of tea at the time.”
Ms Bailey said an independent agency was needed to avoid conflicts of interest within the party, explaining: “The current procedure relies on you having to tell a member of staff in the first instance.
“That relies on staff members who perhaps are inclined to be loyal to the Labour Party and put that first instead of individuals.
“And it can be really difficult to report these issues to a staff member who might be friends with the person that you’re accusing, who might be political allies with them, or have some incentive to protect them and to protect Party that we all love.
“And that makes it really hard to report these difficult issues. That’s why we need an agency that you can report to in the first instance, so that you have confidence this will be dealt with fairly and that you won’t be penalised or come off worse.”
Ed Miliband, who was Labour leader at the time of the alleged rape, said he was “shocked by the horrific allegations” and praised Ms the Labour