It’s time to clean up the boys’ club culture, warns Ruth
London writer Pippa Crerar on her experiences and accusations sweeping through the corridors of Westminster
RUTH Davidson has put herself at the forefront of Theresa May’s drive to “clean out the stable” of sexual harassment in politics.
The Scottish Tory leader said the “dam has broken” and it is time to clean up politics in the wake of the Westminster sex abuse scandal.
At The Spectator’s Politician of the Year awards, where she was named Parliamentarian of the Year, she warned that the “boys’ locker room culture” in politics had to stop.
In a reference to the mythical tasks of Hercules, she said: “When we look at some of the house-clearing that is going to … happen, are we going to say we don’t need some pretty big shovels for the Augean stable?”
Asked yesterday what should
be done in the wake of numerous allegations of abuse and harassment by MPs, she said: “These overwhelmingly maledominated professions – where the boys’ locker room culture has prevailed and it’s all been a bit of a laugh – has got to stop.”
Davidson said people should “have a duty to hold themselves and the organisations which they work for” to “a transparent set of rules to which everyone must be held”.
The allegations of sexual harassment have cut across party lines.
Last night, it emerged Labour MP Kelvin Hopkins has been suspended from the party “on the basis of allegations received”. The former frontbencher, who represents Luton North, has had the whip withdrawn while an investigation into the claims is carried out. Labour said they take complaints “extremely seriously” and have “robust” systems in place to deal with them. LATE NIGHTS AND LECHERY IN THE LOBBY -
IN A dingy bar with dated décor and the heavy smell of beer in the air, down a dank alley in the underbelly of the Palace of Westminster, I came across my first political dinosaur.
I was a new lobby correspondent and had spent the evening drinking with friends in the House of Commons before we tipped into the Sports and Social for a nightcap.
It was late but the woodpanelled bar was still packed with young researchers and aides, along with a couple of MPs.
One of my group knew them so we got chatting. As we drained our glasses, one of the politicians – twice my age – leaned over, stroked my collarbone with his finger and propositioned me.
I’d like to say I came up with a cutting put-down but I think I just giggled embarrassedly and beat a swift retreat.
That was more than 15 years ago but the Sports has retained its reputation for alcohol-sodden nights and all the inappropriate behaviour that goes with that.
There have been other incidents over the years – the MP who tried to kiss me, the peer who sent increasingly inappropriate text messages, the Minister who groped my behind on the dancefloor at a party conference. Each was batted away and the only reporting of them I did was to my journalist and researcher friends – who had their own stories – to warn them to keep their distance.
They were borderline incidents, we told ourselves, rather than crossing the line.
Clumsy passes. Drunken lunges. Misplaced hands. The possibility of complaining further never really seemed like an option.
We didn’t want to be blacklisted or seen as “troublemakers” by our (mostly male) bosses. These were, after all, the 2000s, when the small band of women covering Westminster were referred to as the “lezzy lobby”.
For many women – and some men – in Westminster, inappropriate behaviour has just become a fact of life.
One journalist told me recently she had never been sexually harassed but added: “I’ve only had the odd bit of groping.” Many become almost immune. “I don’t really get shocked that easily,” another confessed. It is a relief that a new generation recognises, after sharing war stories on WhatsApp, that such behaviour should be called out.
But there is a tinge of guilt – should we have done more to change the culture back then? While much “inappropriate” behaviour falls into a grey area – with its definition depending almost entirely on how the person on the receiving end feels – some is irrefutable.
One aide told me how an MP had put his hand on her crotch when they were alone in a room.
Terrified, she did nothing, but later tried to report the incident to the parliamentary authorities, who told her there was little they could do to help.
A Westminster insider I spoke to had her drink spiked in Strangers’ Bar, one of the most popular drinking holes on the estate, earlier this year.
After just a couple of drinks, she blanked out and has no memory of the rest of the night.
When she reported the incident to police the following day, they told her she was “not the first person” whose drink had been spiked at Westminster.
“A doctor told me it was a classic date-rape drug. I don’t know why it happened to me but it has totally changed how I feel about the place,” she said.
There are rumours flying about Parliament about a staff member being pinned down by an MP on a foreign trip and one particularly traumatic story of a Tory former minister raping a researcher, though both are unsubstantiated.
At the heart of the problem at Westminster is power – some people (usually men) have a lot of it, others (often, though not always, women) don’t.
An experienced or powerful woman may feel able to dismiss unwelcome advances as inappropriate behaviour – and reprimand the man responsible. But a young journalist or researcher, or even a new MP whose future career may depend on the perpetrator, might not.
Women MPs have also been targeted – whether with “laddish” behaviour like the “breast-weighing” gestures highlighted by Diane Abbott or harrowing harassment and abuse of the type described by Labour MPs Jess Phillips and Mary Creagh last week.
It is difficult to establish the scale of the problem – the anecdotal evidence suggests dozens of MPs could be culpable – but no political party have been immune.
The Lib Dems were embroiled in a scandal after senior peer Lord Rennard was publicly accused of sexual harassment, which he has denied, by four women in 2013. The Tories hit the headlines with international trade minister Mark Garnier facing a Cabinet Office probe for allegedly making an aide buy sex toys for him, and former minister Stephen Crabb sending a young woman sexually explicit messages.
The latest allegations surround Theresa May’s own deputy, Damian Green, who has been accused of making advances on a writer 30 years his junior.
Labour suspended MP Jared O’Mara last week after revelations emerged about sexist remarks he made on social media. Women members have set up their own website, Labour Too, to collect anecdotes. The party were further shaken when a senior activist, Bex Bailey, revealed she had been raped at a Labour event – and was warned off reporting the incident by senior party figures.
So, what next? Speaker John Bercow expects the parties to lead the crackdown on sexual harassment.
Commons Leader Andrea Leadsom has pledged to establish a new independent grievance procedure. Under the existing system, MPs are the legal bosses of their staff, who are not covered by the established system, including HR support, for other parliamentary employees.
Yet few practical proposals have come forward for changing the culture at Westminster to make sure perpetrators no longer think they are untouchable.
Some have called for more victims to speak out. But Labour MP Phillips said: “It is not OK for any of us to pressure victims to come forward… as if it is the victim’s sole responsibility to get abusers off the street. Perpetrators are always responsible.”
Last week, broadcaster Tom Bradby said: “It shouldn’t just be women raging against the abusers and excusers, but men too. In fact, perhaps it should be especially men.”
Sophie Walker, a former political journalist who now heads the Women’s Equality Party, believes the problem is more intractable: “There’s no silver bullet – the problem is huge and it’s systemic. The reason we haven’t fixed it is that every time we bump up against it, people rush around saying, ‘What’s the one thing we can do to solve this?’ rather than putting in the painstaking work of actually achieving real change.”
There remain concerns that the most serious allegations risk being overshadowed by gossip.
Defence Secretary Michael Fallon’s apology for repeatedly placing his hand on journalist Julia Hartley-Brewer’s knee at a conference dinner 15 years ago – which she dismissed as “quite amusing” – made a front page.
A list of Tory “sex pest” MPs is doing the rounds online – but it appears to conflate serious allegations with “inappropriate” behaviour and, in several cases, consensual activity.
Tory MP Maria Miller, chair of the Women and Equalities Committee, has warned that Westminster “navel-gazing” risks taking attention away from the fact ordinary women face harassment every day.
Journalist Gaby Hinsliff said: “There will be victims who haven’t spoken out yet, watching what happens to women who do.”
Amid the noise at Westminster about sexual harassment, it is the voices of the genuine victims that risk being drowned out.