Ex-minister: I made women feel uncomfortable

A FORMER Labour minister admitted last night that his behaviour towards some female colleagues had been ‘unwelcome’ and ‘made them feel uncomfortable’ after he was accused of touching a teenager inappropriately.

Ivan Lewis, 50, denied sexual harassment, saying he had ‘never made non-consensual sexual comments or sexual advances to women’.

It came after a woman told the Buzzfeed website he repeatedly touched her at a Labour fundraising event at Christmas 2010, when she was 19. She added: ‘ He sat across the table and started stroking my leg with his leg. I thought it was mistake, but every time I moved, he moved and kept stroking my leg.’

She alleged he later repeatedly asked her into his house, even after she declined, but admitted she never reported the incident.

Lewis, who was then Ed Miliband’s shadow culture secretary, denies the accusation.

The MP for Bury South, who served as international development secretary in Gordon Brown’s government, told Buzzfeed: ‘A few women have claimed that my behaviour made them feel uncomfortable. I have on occasion asked women I work with out for drinks or dinner, or developed strong feelings for them, and I am genuinely sorry if this was unwelcome or inappropriate in the circumstances, and caused anyone to feel awkward.’

Mr Lewis apologised in 2008 for sending dozens of suggestive texts to aide Susie Mason, then 24, when he was a health minister.