Trial hears MP’s staff told to forge signature

The deputy leader of Welsh Labour instructed staff to forge signatures on documents submitted to the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, a jury heard.

Jenny Lee Clarke, 42, made the claim about Carolyn Harris – the MP for Swansea East – while giving evidence at Cardiff Crown Court.

Clarke denies charges of forgery and fraud relating to her employment as office manager and senior aide to Mrs Harris. She is accused of fraudulently submitting a form increasing her annual pay from £37,000 to £39,000 and decreasing her weekly hours from 40 to 37.5 in August 2015.

The defendant, who was sacked by Mrs Harris in January 2016, insists Mrs Harris instructed her to make the changes to her contract and forge her signature on the form.

Jurors have been told both women worked for Sian James, the MP for Swansea East until Mrs Harris was elected to the seat in May 2015.

Giving her evidence, Clarke admitted she had submitted the form to the the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa) and signed it in Mrs Harris’ name.

“I signed the form on Carolyn’s instruction,” Clarke, who lives with her daughter, told the jury of eight men and four women.

“It was something I had always done when I worked for Carolyn and when I worked for Sian,” she said.

“Carolyn would give me the forms to fill in because she detested paperwork. When I first started working with Carolyn she had pieces of paper all over the place.

“She would ask either myself or my colleague to sign her (Sian James’) name. I thought it was normal practice. I did what I was told. The repercussions of telling Carolyn ‘no’ were difficult. Carolyn would always dangle my job in front of me and obviously I was the sole earner.”

Mrs Harris previously denied to the jury that she would ask Clarke to sign paperwork for her or Mrs James.

Clarke described Mrs Harris as “overpowering and demanding” but said she “shut up and put up” as she was earning a good salary.

She said Mrs Harris would ask her to wash her car and instructed her to purchase a lawn mower and pressure washer on the parliamentary office’s account in 2014.

“When I questioned her about if Ipsa audited us because we haven’t got a blade of grass she said ‘Don’t you worry about that’,” Clarke claimed. Mrs Harris denied this during her evidence to the court.

Clarke said Mrs Harris also “outed” her to a colleague when she confided in her that she was gay.

“Carolyn would always make derogatory comments about my sexuality and ask me awkward questions and embarrass me,” she told the jury.

“She asked me what I did in bed with my girlfriend specifically and I was absolutely mortified.

The court heard Clarke complained about Mrs Harris’ comments to Mrs James, who warned that she would take further action if they continued.

Clarke claimed that in November 2014 Mrs Harris pulled her hair so hard that clumps came out.

She reported the alleged incident – which Mrs Harris strongly denies – to police in January 2016.

“All of a sudden she had her hands on my head and she was shaking it back and forth,” Clarke told the jury.

“After the incident we had a big discussion. Carolyn was on her hands and knees saying sorry, she loved me more than her son, please forgive her.” Clarke said she did not report the incident at the time as she did not want to spoil Mrs James’s last few months in office.

She was later promised a job by Mrs Harris if she was elected and took up the role on May 8, 2015.

“She was unbearable now she had the title ‘MP’,” Clarke said.

“Her ego went through the roof. She wanted the calls recorded, she wanted us to log every piece of work that we did, she wanted us to sign in.

Clarke claimed Mrs Harris told her “give yourself a couple of thousand” when she was altering a colleague’s contract. “I’m not going to say no,” she told the jury.

Clarke, of Penllergaer, Swansea, was arrested in July 2016 after a colleague forwarded her pay increase form to Mrs Harris.

The trial continues.