MP ‘assaulted me in hotel but officials ignored my complaint’

A WESTMINSTER staffer last night claimed she was sexually assaulted by an MP – but that Parliament failed to act after she reported it.

The alleged victim, who spoke anonymously and did not identify which party the MP was from, said the man forced himself on her in a hotel room last year.

But when she and a senior colleague reported it to several authorities, she claimed they refused to act, adding that officials ‘at best turned a blind eye and at worst actively covered it up’.

The MP’s lawyers were reported to have categorically denied the allegation. The woman, who works for another MP, said she spoke out because she felt Theresa May’s proposals for dealing with sexual harassment allegations in Parliament were ‘inadequate’.

She said the MP asked to talk to her in his hotel room during a work trip to Europe with colleagues. She said she thought nothing of the request as the pair had a professional relationship.

But she told ITV: ‘ He was quite insistent on me sitting on the bed ... to the point where he pushed me on the bed and held me by the shoulders and tried to kiss me.

‘I made it very clear that was not what I wanted, but he was insistent, and pushed me back on to the bed and kind of held me there. The shock soon turned into fear, I realised I was in quite a vulnerable situation ... with someone a lot bigger and stronger than me.’

On his third attempt to kiss her, she fought him off and ran from the room, she said. She reported the incident to the police, the Parliamentary standards commissioner, House of Commons authorities and the MP’s party.

But she claimed none of those took her complaint seriously except the police, who could not investigate because it took place in another country.

She said she was told it was not within the remit of the Parliamentary standards commissioner because she was employed directly by an MP rather than the Commons.

MPs can only be investigated over their public life and not their ‘purely private and personal lives’, rules state.

In a letter this year, Kathryn Hudson, the standards commissioner, said she had concerns about the scope of exist- ing procedures for dealing with allegations but was unable to act in this case.

Staff employed by the Commons are governed by an antiharassment ‘Respect’ policy – but it does not apply for staff employed directly by MPs.

The alleged victim said her colleague tried to set up a meeting with officials to discuss the policy but said it was cancelled several times. She told the Guardian: ‘I was so shocked that they basically didn’t want to know. I felt so alone: how could they not care?

‘We also notified the party. But they did nothing ... [They] made no commitment to investigate, respond, do anything and sure enough we never heard any response from them. We don’t know whether they had a word with the MP or turned a blind eye.’

The Prime Minister has proposed an independent mediation service for staff wanting to raise concerns which would enforce a grievance procedure overseen by MPs that is currently voluntary.

The woman said the measures were not sufficiently independent of political parties to work and that some of the people tasked with fixing the ‘broken’ system are the same ones who failed to act in her case.

She told the paper: ‘It’s inappropriate and I have very little faith or trust that they are suddenly going to have the victims’ interests at heart. It is all about self-protection.’

A spokesman for the standards commissioner said she ‘takes all such allegations seriously’ but has no power to act as it is not within her remit. A Commons spokesman said: ‘The house is limited in its ability to intervene in employment matters as MPs employ their staff directly.’

The Mail asked the MP’s party for a comment.

‘They didn’t want to know’