Female reporters blamed for ‘witch hunt’
CONSERVATIVE MP Sir Roger Gale sparked fury yesterday after blaming female journalists for stoking a “witch hunt”.
He said male MPs were being put “on the rack” over claims about events that took place often years ago at private lunches.
Sir Roger said: “There are female journalists who after years have suddenly said ‘oh well you know I had an experience’. I’m sorry, but where are all these people coming from who are such wilting flowers? Nobody makes a journalist go and have lunch with an MP and drink.”
Sir Michael Fallon quit as Defence Secretary after he was accused of “lunging” at a reporter and trying to kiss her after a lunch in 2003.
Journalist Jane Merrick said she felt “humiliated” and also wondered at the time whether she might have “led him on” by having a glass of wine with the meal.
And Sir Michael admitted inappropriately touching former Sunday Express political editor Julia Hartley-Brewer at a dinner 15 years ago. Meanwhile, Damian Green is under investigation after writer Kate Maltby accused him of acting inappropriately in 2015 and 2016, which he denies and has instructed libel lawyers over. Sir Roger, 74, said: “Damian Green is now on the rack, for what? He is ‘guilty until he is proved innocent’.”
He said he stopped taking on office interns at Westminster for fear of being the target of unfounded allegations.
He employs his wife, Suzy, as office manager in his Kent constituency but when in London, he had no staff to “chaperone” him and feared he would be vulnerable to unfounded accusations if he continued to host “work experience kids”, he said.
Labour MP Stella Creasey said that, luckily, Sir Roger did not speak “for the vast majority of men”.
“He just doesn’t get it,” she added.