The Guardian view on sexism in Westminster: this sleaze harms us all
“Unless we ensure individuals are brought to justice, nothing will change,” Kate Maltby wrote in the Guardian in 2019. The latest comments about male colleagues’ “wandering hands” from the international trade secretary, AnneMarie Trevelyan, combined with the fact that no fewer than 56 MPs are under investigation over sexual conduct, suggest that not only have things not changed for the better since Ms Maltby raised her own complaint in 2017, in some respects they may even have got worse.
True, some MPs have been held to account for inappropriate behaviour. Damian Green was sacked from his position as first secretary of state in 2017 after an investigation found that he had lied to parliament about pornography on his computer. No definitive conclusion was reached in relation to Ms Maltby’s claim that he had behaved wrongly towards her, although her account was found to be “plausible”. In 2020 the former Conservative MP Charlie Elphicke was sentenced to two years in jail for three sexual assaults – two of them on a parliamentary worker. Another Conservative MP, Imran Ahmad Khan, was this month found guilty of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy in 2008, while the Tory MP David Warburton has had the whip removed after allegations emerged of sexual harassment and cocaine use. Labour MP Liam Byrne also faces suspension from the Commons for non-sexual bullying of a male staffer.
But others continue to escape punishment, as the Liberal Democrat Lord Lester did when he resigned from the House of Lords in 2018 after peers voted not to sanction him for sexual harassment. Tory MP Crispin Blunt resigned from his position as chair of an all-party LGBT+ rights group this month, after being criticised for publicly attacking Ahmad Khan’s convic
tion. But the whip was not withdrawn. And Boris Johnson’s whips seemed reluctant, initially, to act against another MP, Neil Parish, who is alleged to have been seen watching pornography at work by two colleagues. Instead, it was suggested that it was for these witnesses to report him to the Independent Complaints and Grievance Scheme set up following #MeToo. On Friday, it was announced that Mr Parish would report himself, and the whip was suspended.
That these reports, which include Ms Trevelyan saying she was once “pinned up against a wall” by a male MP, should come just a week after a highly public attempt to humiliate Labour’s Angela Rayner for crossing her legs, makes them all the more dismaying. And there is a sense of rising anger among female MPs, both about the specific behaviour on display in parliament and the culture of impunity that continues to surround MPs; and about wider trends, including the increasing use of pornography in public places, and smartphone-enabled harassment. Still, optimists point to the fact that women are now more likely these days to complain about male behaviour that would previously have been tolerated. And given everything we know about the number of sexual harassment and abuse experiences that go unreported, it is difficult to assert with confidence that sexual misconduct in parliament has become more common, or less, based on anecdotal evidence. What can be stated firmly is that it is damaging both to politics and to society when senior public figures such as MPs treat women with such contempt.
Labour has its own difficulties in this area. This month a group of senior women in the party called for an end to the use of confidentiality agreements when allegations are made. But the latest news about Mr Parish, following Ahmad Khan’s conviction, Mr Warburton’s suspension and the scurrilous attack on Ms Rayner, mean that Boris Johnson’s party heads into next week’s local elections in a cloud of sleaze.