LEADSOM FAILED TO ACT ON RAPE CLAIM

Commons Leader was told about criminal probe into Westminster researcher... but took no action

‘Complained of cold hands’

ANDREA Leadsom last night admitted failing to take action over a sexual assault allegation.

The Commons leader was told by parliamentary authorities during the summer recess that police were conducting a criminal investigation after a senior Tory was accused of rape by a female activist.

Mrs Leadsom said she was informed of the probe but did nothing because she was not told any details of the accusation and it was already in the hands of the police. Mrs Leadsom is said to have played a key role in the downfall of Sir Michael Fallon after she reported him to Downing Street for ‘vile’ comments he made six years ago. Yesterday, a female Tory activist revealed she had informed Commons clerk David Natzler on August 4 about the rape allegation and raised concerns about a ‘heavy drinking, sexdriven’ culture in Westminster. She had expected Mrs Leadsom or then Tory chief whip Gavin Williamson would contact her but heard nothing.

Mrs Leadsom last night confirmed she had been informed at the time by Mr Natzler that police were examining ‘criminal allegations’.

But she said that she was not told the name of either the victim or the alleged attacker, and took no further action because of the police investigation.

A spokesman for the Commons Leader said: ‘ The clerk did raise to the Leader of the House that there were allegations that were being dealt with as a criminal matter.

‘It was not appropriate for her to take any action because it was being dealt with as a criminal matter.’

Mr Williamson, who has succeeded Sir Michael as Defence Secretary, insisted that none of the allegations was referred to him.

Known only as Amanda, the alleged victim told the BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire show that she blamed herself after being attacked.

She said: ‘I was raped by someone senior to me in the Conservative Party. It was violent. It wasn’t in Westminster, it was in my own home.

‘And it shouldn’t have happened. I remember the attack, during the attack. I remember the room disappearing around me and thinking I was going to die. When he left the next day I was at the police station within an hour and I reported it.’

She added: ‘I have lost count of the number of women I have seen plied with drink to the point they couldn’t stand up then escorted out of bars by senior staffers and MPs. People don’t bat an eyelid. It’s like we’re meat.

‘New intern, new meat. I don’t think it’s that bad, I know it’s that bad.

‘I have men stick their hands up my skirt, I have had men ply me with so much drink that I couldn’t stand up. I saw it happen to other women. I thought it was normal.’

Mrs Leadsom has been at the centre of the Westminster sexual harassment scandal after she raised concerns about Sir Michael’s conduct before his shock resignation last week.

When the pair were members of the Commons Treasury committee six years ago, after she complained of cold hands, he is said to have told her: ‘I know where you can put them to warm them up.’

Mrs Leadsom is also said to have warned that Sir Michael was too ‘tactile’ and once put his arm around her in what a source described as ‘unwanted attention’.

Sir Michael has categorically denied the claims. But a friend acknowledged he may have made derogatory comments about women’s looks in Mrs Leadsom’s hearing.

A Commons spokesman last night said: ‘There was no question of formally “referring” the allegations to other House authorities as there was already a criminal case underway. We understand that the charges have recently been dropped.’

First Secretary of State Damian Green was interviewed yesterday as part of a Cabinet Office probe which has been expanded to include claims that pornography was found on one of his parliamentary computers in 2008.

The inquiry was triggered after Kate Maltby, who is three decades younger than Mr Green, claimed he fleetingly touched her knee during a meeting in a Waterloo pub in 2015, and a year later sent her a suggestive text.

Former Metropolitan Police assistant commissioner Bob Quick also gave evidence to the Cabinet Office yesterday. In 2012, he told the Leveson Inquiry that he helped a Home Office leak inquiry that is said to have led to the discovery of the pornography.

He worked with his then deputy Cressida Dick, who is now the Scotland Yard Commissioner. He said she conducted a ‘scoping exercise’ on the allegations, which led to no charges.

Mr Green, who is effectively Theresa May’s deputy, says the allegations are ‘untrue and deeply hurtful’.