COMMONS SEX PESTS TURMOIL
Up to 13 MPs face accusations ++ PM demands new conduct rules ++ But critics warn against comparisons to Weinstein
Theresa May was last night battling to contain a Westminster sexual harassment scandal.
With up to 13 MPs accused of misconduct, she has reportedly threatened to sack any Cabinet minister proved to be a sex pest. And Mrs May has written to Commons Speaker John Bercow to demand a shake-up of ‘toothless’ disciplinary procedures.
Brexit minister Mark Garnier faces a formal probe into claims he made his secretary buy sex toys for him and called her ‘sugar t*ts’ in public. He denies sexual harassment and says the allegations are exaggerated.
Yesterday a journalist said a Tory MP made a drunken lunge at her following a Westminster lunch. But amid the fresh wave of lurid allegations one MP warned the claims should not be confused with the very serious accusations against movie mogul Harvey
A BREXIT minister faces an official Cabinet Office probe after he admitted asking a secretary to buy sex toys.
Theresa May has ordered the inquiry into whether Mark Garnier breached ministerial conduct rules.
It follows allegations the 53-year-old father of three asked his assistant to buy two vibrators and called her ‘sugar t*ts’. While he admitted the stories, the international trade minister under Liam Fox strenuously denied they constituted harassment – describing them as merely ‘high jinks’.
As Westminster faced a fresh series of claims of sex harassment, former Cabinet minister Stephen Crabb admitted sending explicit text messages to an 19year-old he had interviewed for a job.
And a series of lurid claims have been circulating around the corridors of power over two senior Cabinet ministers. Last night Labour MP John Mann called on Mrs May to sack Mr Garnier and to remove the whip from Mr Crabb. ‘Garnier should be sacked as a minister obviously; that would be sufficient,’ he said.
‘And what Crabb did was far worse than Simon Danczuk, who was booted out of Labour for sexting.’ The decision to investigate Mr Garnier was disclosed by Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt during an interview on BBC1’s The Andrew Marr Show.
‘These stories, if they are true, are obviously totally unacceptable,’ he said. ‘The Cabinet Office will be conducting an investigation into whether there’s been a breach of the ministerial code in this particular case.’
The code’s provisions were considered sufficiently broad for Theresa May to order an inquiry, even though it does not specifically cover ministers’ conduct towards their Commons staff. It was also considered to apply to Mr Garnier – who only joined the Government in July last year – even though it is not clear if he was a minister when the alleged incidents took place.
The Mail on Sunday reported that the MP admitted asking his then secretary, Caroline Edmondson, to buy two sex toys at a shop in Soho – one for his wife and one for a woman in his Wyre Forest constituency office.
He admitted it but described the incident as ‘good-humoured high jinks’ following a Christmas lunch. ‘I hung around outside and she went into this shop, said the MP. ‘That was it.’ He said they later ‘fell out’ and claimed ‘disgruntled’ Miss Edmondson had an axe to grind. The minister vehemently denies sexual harassment but conceded it could ‘look like dinosaur behaviour’.
Miss Edmondson said that on another occasion, the minister called her ‘sugar t*ts’ in front of others. Her former boss said it was part of an ‘amusing conversation’
‘Totally unacceptable’
and referred to the TV comedy Gavin And Stacey – in which the term is used to describe an attractive woman. A Tory party spokesman last night said: ‘As a result of allegations about a serving minister, the prime minister has also asked the Cabinet Office to conduct an immediate investigation to see whether those reported actions break the ministerial code.’
Mr Crabb last night admitted he had been ‘ foolish’ for sending ‘explicit’ messages to a 19-yearold interviewee but said that there had been no sexual contact.
The former Welsh minister is said to have sent ‘flirtatious’ messages to the teenager in 2013 and met her for a drink in the Commons. ‘We exchanged messages which talked about sex but none of it was meant seriously,’ he said.
‘I accept any kind of sexual chatter like this is totally wrong and I am sorry for my actions.’ The devout Christian resigned last year as Work and Pensions Secretary following a similar incident in which he sent sexual messages to a young woman during the EU Referendum campaign. Two sen- ior Cabinet ministers have been named by female MPs, researchers and journalists as sex pests, according to reports.
One is said to have placed his hand on the thigh of a female reporter and said “God, I love those t***”. Another figure reportedly had an affair with a junior female aide who is also an MP.
Female MPs were also said to be sharing details of a former Tory minister who propositioned his young secretary by saying ‘come and feel the length of my ****’.
A Labour MP was reported to have been thrown off a foreign trip for making ‘ inappropriate’ approaches while another is said to be known as ‘happy hands’. A Liberal Democrat peer is said to have asked female journalists to wear knee-high boots and short skirts.