Only a vicar’s daughter can halt the sleaze

IF EVER there was a time for a Prime Minister to take charge of events, still the storm and impose calm, this is such a time. And who could be better qualified to rise above the angry, ugly accusations and counter-accusations of crude abuse than a dutiful, morally unimpeachable vicar’s daughter?

In truth, this cannot really go on much longer. Our Parliament, for obvious reasons, is especially prone to sleazy misbehaviour. It remains male-dominated at least partly because so many women are not attracted by its clubland traditions and boozy fake camaraderie.

And despite deep changes in personnel, working hours and customs, and a significant increase in female representation, it remains – in many ways – stuck somewhere in the 1980s.

The mismatch between this and the world outside is now so great that some sort of explosion was bound to happen.

The best outcome would be further careful reform. Perhaps more importantly, it must be combined with an understanding, even in the thickest male political skulls, that the days of knee-grabbing, leering and bottompinching are as dead and gone as the days of fiddled expenses.

What we do not need is yet another inquiry. Male MPs who genuinely don’t know how to behave towards women should be able to look it up in a simple, clear, brief code agreed by the major party leaders and the Speaker.

And once that is done, everyone else can turn down the heat. A witch-hunt will help nobody. Nor does it make sense to forget the basic rules of evidence and due process.

For example, if the Tory Party wants to report one of its male MPs to the police, it might make sense to tell him first what it is they are reporting him for.

But such things will happen until Mrs May gets a grip. Worse, the business of Government, from Brexit to the Budget, is becalmed as the eyes and minds of Westminster are turned instead towards this scandal.

It has gone on long enough. But it will not stop until the Prime Minister acts.