MP’s WhatsApp list of ‘sex pests in Westminster’
WESTMINSTER was plunged into a new ‘sex pest’ row last night after a Labour backbencher named 20 colleagues in an alleged ‘sexual harassment list’.
Charlotte Nichols sparked fury from some fellow parliamentarians for posting it on a WhatsApp group understood to be used by Labour MPs who, like her, were elected in 2019. One senior figure who claimed to have seen the list said that as well as politicians who had previously faced harassment claims, it included a prominent Tory never publicly accused before.
Yesterday, Ms Nichols said the list had been sent ‘without context’ and with no specific allegations. But she confirmed it contained the names of MPs with a sex-pest reputation. The MP for Warrington North also said that she stood by every name, adding that for the ‘less well-known’ she herself had ‘first-hand experience of their behaviour’. She added that she had since deleted the post as she had sent it to a particular WhatsApp group by mistake.
But last night, other MPs privately vented their anger at her actions. One senior Labour figure said: ‘If you believe you have evidence that X, Y or Z is a wrong ’un, then fair enough. But you can’t just put names out like this.’
A Tory MP said it was ‘grossly irresponsible’ to post such a list on a WhatsApp group: ‘If you have evidence, you report it to the parliamentary authorities or the police.’
Last year, Ms Nichols claimed she had been the victim of sexual misconduct at least a dozen times since entering Parliament. She stopped short of naming the alleged culprits but said they were from different parties and some were senior.
In November she also told BBC Radio 5 Live that ‘when I first came into Parliament a group of people I knew gave me a list of MPs… whom I should try to avoid as far as possible to keep myself safe’.
Ms Nichols denied last night that she’d been irresponsible in her actions, saying: ‘What’s irresponsible is the lack of real action to sort out Westminster’s sexual harassment problem, which is so endemic other MPs have to be warned about colleagues’ behaviour.’