The Brexit rebel, pub outcast and Tory-hater: meet Corbyn’s juniors
CLIVE LEWIS, the Labour MP who quit Jeremy Corbyn’s front bench in protest at being told to vote in favour of Brexit, has been welcomed back to the shadow government less than a year later.
Mr Lewis has been appointed shadow minister for the Treasury, having served as shadow business secretary until February last year.
Mr Lewis resigned from that brief over the Labour Party’s decision to whip its MPS into voting to trigger Article 50.
He was investigated by Labour’s National Executive Committee last year over accusations of groping a woman but was cleared of any wrongdoing.
In a reshuffle of junior front bench posts, Mr Corbyn also gave a job to Laura Pidcock, the 30-year-old MP for North West Durham who made headlines after entering Parliament last June when she said she could never be friends with a Conservative.
Ms Pidock is promoted to shadow minister for labour just seven months into her career as an MP.
Karen Lee, a former nurse who also entered Parliament last year when she won the Lincoln seat, becomes shadow fire minister, filling the role left vacant when Corbyn ally Chris Williamson was forced to resign earlier in the week after he said council tax should be doubled for owners of larger homes.
Dan Carden, the 31-year-old MP for Liverpool Walton who was briefly handed a lifetime ban from a Liverpool pub over his allegedly raucous behaviour when he celebrated becoming an MP last year, has been given a role as a shadow minister for international development. Lyn Brown, the MP for West Ham who briefly stood in as shadow home secretary when Diane Abbott fell ill last year, joins Mr Lewis as a shadow minister for the Treasury.
Meanwhile, a victim of alleged sexual harassment by a Labour MP has said she has felt “fobbed off ” after her allegations were ignored for “two long years” by Mr Corbyn.
Ivan Lewis and Kelvin Hopkins have been referred to the party’s constitutional committee for a full hearing into complaints made against them.
The men were among a number of Labour and Tory MPS to be investigated after allegations of Westminster sleaze last year.
Mr Hopkins was reprimanded after Ava Etemadzadeh, 27, initially complained in 2015, but was later promoted by Mr Corbyn to his shadow cabinet.
The long-serving Left-wing politician is now suspended from the party pending investigation of Ms Etemadzadeh’s complaint – which was first disclosed by The Daily Telegraph in November – and separate allegations by MP Kerry Mccarthy of unwanted attention over a number of years.
Last night Ms Etemadzadeh said: “After two long years of my complaint about Kelvin Hopkins being ignored by Jeremy Corbyn, I cautiously welcome the fact that my case is finally being heard.
“I am grateful to the NEC panel for recognising there is a case to answer here and the matter should be referred to the National Constitutional Committee for consideration of disciplinary action. But this doesn’t hide that the facts of my case haven’t changed since I made my original complaint in December 2015.”