Shadow equality minister ‘called aide a dyke and pulled out bits of her hair’
LABOUR’S shadow equalities minister was accused of calling her aide a “dyke” before “outing” her to colleagues, a court has heard.
Jenny Lee Clarke, who was accused of fraud while working for Carolyn Harris, the Swansea East MP, claimed the politician also pulled her hair while she worked as her office manager.
Mrs Harris told Cardiff Crown Court she “didn’t remember” using the word, but if she had it would have been “office banter” and denied assaulting her.
The court was told that Mrs Harris, 57, said to Ms Clarke, “Look at your dyke boots” after finding out she was gay. But giving evidence, the MP said she was “an ally of the LGBT community” and “no homophobe”.
She said: “I don’t remember saying that but if I did it would have been banter. It’s a term for lesbian. Jenny Clarke is. I’m certainly not homophobic. I’m an ally of the LGBT community and I have always been.”
Stephen Donnelly, defending Ms Clarke, asked Mrs Harris if the term dyke was an “appropriate word in a work environment”.
She told the court: “Probably not. But Jenny used it herself.”
Ms Clarke, 42, of Penllergaer, Swansea, is accused of increasing her own pay by £2,000 but denies fraud and forgery. She was alleged to have changed her salary from £37,000 to £39,000 and reduced her working hours by 150 minutes from 40 hours by faking the signature of the Labour MP on an Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority form in 2015. Mr Donnelly accused Mrs Harris of “outing” Ms Clarke to colleagues when she had confided in her that she was gay but Mrs Harris responded that she had not needed to “out” her sexuality as “it was quite obvious”.
Mrs Harris denied making the comments, and denied outing Ms Clarke to a colleague. Mr Donnelly also accused Mrs Harris of assaulting his client in November 2014. He said: “You shook her so violently that you pulled clumps of hair out.”
The MP said: “That is definitely not true,” adding: “I wouldn’t have shaken her head. This is really distressing to suggest such a thing. We had a good friendship. I did her a good many favours including giving her a television, a car, holidays in my caravan – it was a mutually beneficial friendship.”
She described a “lovely atmosphere” in the office and said staff would laugh together and talk about “anything and everything”.
The trial continues.