KEVIN MAGUIRE

Revelations to keep on coming as they drain Pestminster

YOU can smell the fear of the sex-hunters now that they’re the hunted, as the tables are steadily turned on Pestminster’s predators.

The House of Horrors is surrendering its sleaziest secrets as exploited women and, in a number of cases men, no longer keep quiet about past indignities.

With the genie out of the bottle I’d be amazed if more MPs aren’t named-and-shamed, and Ministers forced to quit in disgrace.

For too long a dirty minority got away with grotesque behaviour by intimidating victims into silence. Punitive libel and smothering privacy laws were frustrating shields of immunity, behind which disreputable law-makers sheltered.

Abuse of power is at the root of their harassment and physical attacks. The initials “MP” after a name have been wrongly regarded by the unscrupulous few as a ticket to grope and fondle.

I seriously question Theresa May’s ability to survive this crisis. So far, she has failed to get a grip and an unprincipled refusal to suspend a number of senior Tories, including Damian Green, is utterly depressing.

SELF-INTEREST

Her Cabinet resembles the Soviet Communist Party’s central committee in Armando Iannucci’s hit comedy The Death of Stalin, as individuals fight their own corners, with survival and self-interest the sole priority. What a cesspit.

Labour is also under fire, as is the SNP. So at May’s summit of party leaders today there’ll be no smug preaching from moral molehills.

What’s troubling is who knew what and when, and how much bad behaviour was swept under the carpet by whips’ offices and leaders.

But this is no witch-hunt. This is a mucking out of the parliamentary stables and, ultimately, our politics and country will be much the better for it.

Down the line I’m confident the angry majority of MPs – who are personally decent, never preying on colleagues or voters – will benefit.

The court of public opinion is judge and jury in this scandal and they want the monsters gone.