Gasps as MP raises case of Commons employee who was sexually harassed

A LABOUr MP shocked Parliament yesterday as she described how a House of Commons employee had been sexually harassed by a colleague.

MPs gasped as Teresa Pearce raised the case of a constituent who is employed by the Commons and had been targeted at work. Her remarks prompted Theresa May to vow to make a ‘very serious response’ to the case and the findings of a damning report into sexual harassment and bullying in Parliament.

Miss Pearce told the House: ‘ Despite many months of meetings with her Hr and line management, she’s been treated like the problem rather than the victim.

‘Could the Prime Minister advise me what I can do to help my constituent return to work and feel safe – when her employer is this House?’ Mrs May replied by acknowledging her ‘concern’ over the findings of the Cox report which identified a culture of bullying and abuse.

‘I hope there will be a very serious, full response and a proper response to Dame Laura Cox’s report,’ she said.

‘This should worry all of us and what I want to see is a situation where [Miss Pearce’s] constituent is able to ensure she can come to work in this House, be treated with dignity and respect, and not be subject to bullying, harassment or abuse.’

It is understood that the Erith and Thamesmead constituent is employed directly by the House of Commons, rather than an MP. Miss Pearce said: ‘After many months of trying to support my constituent through the proper channels, out of sheer frustration, I felt that I had to raise it on the floor of the House today, especially after the report that was published yesterday.

‘I am not willing to divulge any details about my constituent, other than to say that she has my full support.’

The report continued to cause issues for Labour after leader Jeremy Corbyn was forced to slap down his MPs over controversial comments yesterday.

The Cox report called for a change in the leadership of Parliament to enable the negative culture to be defeated. It prompted calls from Tory MPs for Speaker John Bercow to go, but Emily Thornberry, the Shadow Foreign Secretary, and Dame Margaret Beckett, the party’s former acting leader, said it was important that Mr Bercow stayed to oversee Brexit. Mr Corbyn’s spokesman distanced himself from their comments, saying Miss Thornberry was only expressing a ‘personal view’.

POLITICS can sometimes make for strange bedfellows. I know this myself from occasions when I’ve challenged Labour’s entrenched viewpoint and placed principle before party loyalty.

In 2003, for example, I opposed the Iraq war which Tony Blair led us into, and more recently I campaigned for a Leave vote in the 2016 Brexit referendum.

But there are alliances that are too unholy to contemplate, and one is being forged now between some of my fellow Labour MPs and John Bercow, the embattled Speaker of the House of Commons.

The issue at hand is an independent report published this week by Dame Laura Cox QC on bullying and sexual harassment at Westminster. What she uncovered, involving ‘serial’ offences by some MPs, is shocking.

Concealed

In a damning indictment of life at Westminster, Dame Laura pulls no punches, describing ‘a culture, cascading from the top down, of deference, subservience, acquiescence and silence, in which bullying, harassment and sexual harassment have been able to thrive and have long been tolerated and concealed.’

We owe it to all those brave people who came forward not to sweep this under the carpet. Which is why you would expect Labour — with its long and honourable history of fighting for gender equality and the protection of employees — to be in the vanguard of those calling for the resignation of the Speaker.

He is the one who has presided over this abusive culture, and is even now trying to cling on to office by hinting that he will step down quietly ... next year.

It must be added that Mr Bercow himself has been accused of bullying staff — an allegation he firmly denies.

If these allegations in Dame Laura’s report — including the groping of female staff — were made about staff in a private company, my colleagues on the Labour benches, normally so keen on women’s rights, would be clamouring for the chief executive’s head ... before breakfast. This is the party that likes to call itself progressive, even though it has never had a female leader, while the Conservatives have had two women Prime Ministers.

So did Labour demand immediate action when the Speaker granted an urgent question on this matter in the Commons on Tuesday? Well, no. While female Tory MPs angrily called for Mr Bercow to step down, some Labour MPs, including Dame Margaret Beckett — a member of the Committee on Standards in Public Life — and Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry seemed anxious to ensure his survival.

Emily Thornberry said later on Sky News: ‘I think this is absolutely not the time to be changing Speaker.’

The reason for such pusillanimity from Labour’s ranks of feminists became plain when Margaret Beckett admitted: ‘If it comes to it ... the most difficult decision we’ve made for hundreds of years trumps bad behaviour.’ She was of course referring to Brexit — which is the real reason the Speaker was let off the hook.

For he is the pro-remain controller of parliamentary business, and that means they are willing to ignore the blindingly obvious — that this discredited occupant of one of the highest offices in the land must go. And go now.

The Speaker is meant to be a neutral figure, conducting business free of party political taint. As William Lenthall, a holder of that office, explained to Charles I: ‘May it please your Majesty, I have neither eyes to see nor tongue to speak in this place but as the House is pleased to direct me.’

But Mr Bercow’s pedigree as a remainer is undisputed — witness the sticker affixed to a car occupying his personal parking space earlier this year proclaiming ‘B*****KS TO BREXIT’. Indeed, he made no secret of his remain sympathies while speaking to students back in 2017.

He is, of course, entitled to his personal views, but as Speaker not only should he be impartial, he must be seen to be impartial. Betty Boothroyd, in my view a great Speaker, would never have allowed herself to get caught up in this kind of controversy. She put Parliamentary dignity before her own ego.

We are now entering the closing scenes of the protracted and tortuous drama that is the United Kingdom’s departure from the EU. After years of behind-closeddoors negotiations in Brussels and in Cabinet, Parliament is about to take centre stage.

The role of Speaker will be central in this closing act, and his or her decisions matter. But the idea that Mr Bercow is uniquely qualified for this role through experience is ridiculous: all the Deputy Speakers are perfectly capable of taking over.

With the publication of Dame Laura’s report on harassment and abuse in Parliament, we are beginning the cleansing of the Augean stables. The document makes sometimes painful reading: several offenders were named repeatedly by those who gave evidence (though not named in the report), and several departments kept cropping up, too.

Abuse

Witnesses spoke of a ‘macho culture’ in which women were not welcome. Female members of staff would be told to make the tea, or asked if they needed to work or had a husband. Shockingly, there were allegations of racial abuse, also.

The human cost of this is all too clear. ‘People who believed themselves to be strong, capable individuals suddenly found that they were unable to eat or sleep properly, or they were shouting at their children or partners, or were prone to sudden bouts of crying or panic attacks,’ writes Dame Laura.

One of the 200 people interviewed privately by Dame Laura spoke movingly of her feelings, and neatly sums up what is at stake. ‘We are proud to work in the House of Commons, but when we are abused those who lead us should support us, not abandon us to our fate and cover up the traces. And those who abuse us should be held accountable.

‘ Establishing a new complaints and grievance process won’t come close to solving the problems in this place. We need a seismic shift. But the institution is worth fighting for.’

I take no pleasure in supporting the call for the Speaker to step down. He has made some useful changes which have helped hold the Executive to account, but he himself must be held to account and, as the report makes clear, without real change at the top there is doubt that anything will change down the line.

Dignity

The right of people going about their daily work to be treated with dignity, free of abuse at the hands of the powerful, be it sexual or otherwise, cannot be ‘trumped’, in the words of Margaret Beckett, by any political consideration — even one as momentous as Brexit.

‘ It may be that some individuals will want to think very carefully about whether they are the right people to press the reset button and to do what is required to deliver that change in the best interests of the House,’ says Dame Laura.

No name is mentioned, but you don’t have to be Sherlock Holmes to work out the identity of one of those she is talking about.

Some years ago, I played a small part in the downfall of the previous Speaker, Michael Martin. This was during the MPs’ expenses row, when he sought to cover up the details. He was sensible enough to listen to voices of concern and was able to leave while still retaining some dignity. Speaker Bercow should do the same.

But as long as the remainers in Labour — including those women MPs who are normally obsessed with equality — turn a blind eye in the name of political expediency, then he will stay right where he is in the crucial months ahead.