Labour MP still has drug shame son on payroll
A DISGRACED Labour MP is continuing to employ her son as her chief of staff despite his drugs conviction – after an official probe into the scandal was quietly shelved.
Kate Osamor faced widespread pressure to sack Ishmael, 30, after he was convicted of having £2,500 of drugs at Bestival music festival in September 2017.
The North London MP was lambasted for claiming that she was unaware of her son’s trial – when in fact she had written to the judge on House of Commons notepaper requesting leniency.
Miss Osamor, 50, later resigned from Labour’s frontbench and was reported to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, the watchdog which investigates MPs accused of breaching the code of conduct.
Investigators were expected to probe Miss Osamor over her decision to continue employing her son in the taxpayer-funded role, a position which gives him a parliamentary pass, in spite of his serious drugs conviction. She was also reported for using Commons-branded paper in her letter to the judge – a move described by MPs as a rank abuse of privilege.
Yet the Daily Mail can today reveal that the investigation has been dropped, and Miss Osamor is continuing to employ her son.
A source close to the probe said: ‘The commissioner wrote back to the MP who requested the investigation and told them there weren’t enough grounds for a proper investigation.’
Critics reacted with fury, branding standards commissioner Kathryn Stone ‘toothless to act in the face of obvious wrongdoing’.
Simon Hoare, Tory MP for North Dorset, said: ‘If Kate Osamor’s behaviour isn’t enough to warrant an investigation by the standards commissioner, then who knows what is.
‘The commissioner’s ruling appears completely incomprehensible. There must be a review of the decision.’
Ishmael is listed as a staff member on Miss Osamor’s latest register of interests, updated on March 22. The job earns him a salary of between £30,000 and £35,000.
Asked about the commissioner’s decision, Miss Osamor said: ‘The issue concerning my son was and remains a private family matter.
‘Nothing that my son did had impacted upon his work in my office or upon my work within the constituency.’
The office of the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards declined to comment.
‘Completely incomprehensible’