Labour suspends MP over sex claim

LABOUR suspended an MP last night over allegations that he sent ‘inappropriate’ texts to a 24-year-old woman and rubbed himself against her.

Kelvin Hopkins, a former shadow minister, had the Labour whip suspended while he is investigated. He is the first Labour MP to be named in the Westminster harassment scandal.

Ava Etemadzadeh, now 2 , said she complained to the party’s whips’ office but no one took action. She also said a local party member contacted Jer- emy Corbyn’s office last year, but nothing was done. She said: ‘I know the leader’s office was informed and they didn’t act on it, which is disgraceful.’

Mr Hopkins, 6, the MP for Luton North and an ally of Mr Corbyn, was only suspended last night after questions were asked about his conduct. Miss Etemadzadeh met Mr Hopkins in 2013. In 2014 she invited him to speak at Essex University, where she was chairman of the campus Labour society. She told the Daily Telegraph that afterwards: ‘He hugged me... held me too tight and rubbed his crotch on me, which I found revolting.’

He is also alleged to have texted: ‘A nice young man would be lucky to have you as a girlfriend and lover ... Were I to be young... but I am not.

‘If you ever need a friend you have my number... xxx’.

Miss Etemadzadeh said she thanked him for his ‘kind words’ to defuse what he had said. Mr Hopkins was unavailable for comment last night.