‘Serious allegations’ about Tory MP passed to the police

Westminster scandal deepens as former Conservative whip is reported by his own party

THE Westminster sexual harassment scandal escalated dramatically last night when the Conservative Party passed “serious allegations” about one of its MPS to the police.

Charlie Elphicke, a former party whip, was immediately suspended by the party, which offered no details about the allegations. The 46-year-old, who is married with two children, denied wrongdoing and said the party had not even made him aware of what was being alleged.

According to reports last night, the Conservative whips received an allegation about Mr Elphicke shortly after Theresa May became Prime Minister, but the woman who made the complaint did not want to involve the police.

Mrs May is likely to face questions about why the party has only now referred the matter to police. Gavin Williamson, the Defence Secretary who was chief whip at the time, is also likely to face scrutiny about what he knew Charlie Elphicke, MP for Dover, the first Tory to have the whip suspended as a result of allegations and what action he took. In a statement released shortly after 9pm last night, Julian Smith, who was promoted to Chief Whip on Thursday, said: “I have suspended the party whip from Charlie Elphicke following serious allegations that have been referred to the police.” Mr Elphicke responded via Twitter: “The party tipped off the press before telling me of my suspension. I am not aware of what the alleged claims are and deny any wrongdoing.”

Mr Elphicke, the MP for Dover and Deal, is the first Conservative MP to be reported to the police since a list of MPS’ alleged misdemeanours began circulating in Westminster a week ago.

He is also the first Tory MP to have the whip suspended as a result of the scandal. Sir Michael Fallon resigned as defence secretary on Wednesday after he admitted to behaviour that had fallen short of the standards expected of his post, but did not lose the whip. Mrs May has until now been reluctant to suspend any of her MPS. With a majority that depends on the DUP, she can ill-afford to suspend MPS, though Mr Elphicke is still likely to vote with the Government.

Two Labour MPS, Kelvin Hopkins and Jared O’mara, have lost the party whip while investigations are carried out into their behaviour.

Mr Elphicke was reported to police on the day Mrs May published a new code of conduct for Conservative MPS that said inappropriate behaviour on just one occasion could now be counted as harassment.

Mr Hopkins had been spoken to about alleged inappropriate conduct.

Last night, in his first public statement about the claims, Mr Hopkins denied inappropriate sexual contact with the young activist after she claimed he rubbed his crotch against her during a hug. He said: “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 into my car. I did not hold her tight. I did not rub any part of my body, let alone my crotch, against Ava.”

The allegation about Mr Lewis emerged on The Independent website last night. An activist claimed she had introduced herself to the former shadow defence secretary at the World Transformed event, which ran parallel to the official conference. She said: “We had a hug and while we were having a hug he gave my bum a big squeeze. My friend who was there, a fellow [constituency party] delegate… me and him looked at each other and our eyebrows went ‘whoaaa’.”

She added: “You kind of jump. I didn’t feel grossed out. I definitely laughed. It felt like if you are hugging a mate. I don’t know. It was over-familiar. I had never met him before.”

The woman said she did not make a complaint immediately but subsequently reconsidered and reported the incident to the party.

Mr Lewis said: “I wouldn’t do that to someone. It’s not what I do, it’s not my style, it’s not how I roll. They have made the allegation and I totally refute it. If someone hugs me, I hug them back. I would completely deny it.”