NOW SEX STORM ENGULFS CORBYN
How Labour leader picked MP for shadow cabinet despite knowing he’d been accused of sexually harassing a young activist
JEREMY Corbyn was struggling to keep a lid on Labour sleaze allegations last night after promoting an MP accused of sexual harassment.
The Labour leader appointed Kelvin Hopkins, who has now been suspended, to the shadow cabinet despite being aware of the allegations.
And it emerged last night that Clive Lewis, one of Mr Corbyn’s key allies, is under investigation for allegedly groping a woman at the Labour conference in September.
Earlier this week, Labour was rocked by claims that activist Bex Bailey was raped at a party event but told to keep quiet by a senior figure because it could damage her career.
Mr Hopkins’s alleged victim, Ava Etemadzadeh, has accused him of sending lewd texts three years ago.
She said she complained twice to Mr Corbyn’s office but was left ‘disillusioned’ after the Labour leader gave him a job as shadow culture secretary.
Following the appointment, then-chief whip Dame Rosie Winterton raised the alleged incident with Mr Corbyn’s office, but Mr Hopkins remained in post.
Miss Etemadzadeh, 27, said yesterday the promotion of the MP after she made her allegations left her feeling ‘powerless and isolated and alone’.
She said she complained to the whips’ office in 2015, and again in 2016 to the Labour leader’s office through a regional party office. But Mr Hopkins, 76, the MP for Luton North, was suspended only after she went public with her complaint on Wednesday.
Miss Etemadzadeh told BBC Radio 4’s World at One: ‘I’m very disillusioned because just a few months [after the second complaint was made] I realised that Jeremy Corbyn promoted Kelvin Hopkins to the Shadow Cabinet despite the fact that the leader’s office was aware of this.
‘What really destroyed me was that the leader’s office knew this and they didn’t act on it.’
The activist said she met Mr Hopkins at an event on a university campus.
‘When I was saying goodbye to him he hugged me too tightly and rubbed his crotch on me. It made me feel extremely uncomfortable and I was really shocked and it was a very revolting act,’ she said.
The Labour MP denies this, but admits that he later sent her a message saying a man would be ‘lucky to have [her] as a lover’.
Miss Etemadzadeh raised concerns about the text but was told she could not make a complaint anonymously, so she decided not to take the matter further.
Dame Rosie reprimanded Mr Hopkins for his behaviour and informed Mr Corbyn’s office of the complaint.
Asked if she had been taken seriously, Miss Etemadzadeh replied: ‘By Rosie Winterton, yes, but by the leader’s office, no.’
In early 2016, Mr Corbyn’s office received a second complaint about the text through a regional office, which Miss Etemadzadeh said was ‘ ignored’. Months later, Mr Corbyn appointed Mr Hopkins – one of the 36 MPs to nominate him for Labour leader – to the Shadow Cabinet.
Labour has not contested this version of events, but is understood to have considered the matter closed following the reprimand. Mr Corbyn’s office is thought not to have known about the incident with the crotch until Wednesday, when Miss Etemadzadeh attended a meeting in the Whips’ Office.
She said she was told she would have to make a formal complaint through Labour’s National Executive Committee before they could act on her claims.
But just hours later, minutes before a newspaper published her
‘It was a very revolting act’
story, Labour announced that Mr Hopkins had been suspended.
Labour MP Jess Phillips said it was ‘absolutely’ right that Mr Hopkins was suspended over the allegations. She questioned his promotion to become the party’s culture spokesman, but said she believed the decision was more ‘cock-up than conspiracy’.
Mr Hopkins accepts he had sent the text but denies rubbing his crotch against her. He said last night: ‘I absolutely and categorically deny that I in any way engaged in any such inappropriate conduct.
‘I simply put an arm around her shoulder to give her a brief, slight hug just before getting in to my car. I did not hold her tight. I did not rub any part of my body, let alone my crotch, against Ava.
‘She waved me off as I drove away and did not say anything whatsoever to suggest that anything had occurred that upset her let alone revolted her.’
A Labour spokesman said: ‘ On the basis of allegations received by the Labour Party, Kelvin Hopkins has been suspended from party membership, and therefore the Labour whip, while an investigation takes place.
‘The Labour Party takes all such complaints extremely seriously.’
On Tuesday, Miss Bailey revealed she was raped by a senior official at a party event in 2011 when she was just 19, but was advised against making a complaint. She said: ‘It took me a while to summon up the courage to tell anyone in the party, but when I did I told a senior member of staff... it was suggested to me that I not report it.
‘I was told that if I did it might damage me and that might be their genuine view, it might be that that was the case, in which case that shows we have a serious problem in politics.’
Miss Bailey said she did not report the rape immediately as she was ‘ scared and ashamed’, and said she believed that for some, party loyalty came first’.
Last night Labour said it would appoint a specialist organisation to offer advice to anyone affected by sexual harassment within the party. It has also appointed Karon Monaghan QC to investigate the party’s handling of rape allegations made by Miss Bailey.
The party is also investigating Sheffield Hallam MP Jared O’Mara, who is accused of making sexist, racist and homophobic comments in articles.