The Sunday Times May 1, 2022 7liamentary worker in 2016 and one was
in relation to a woman at his family’s cen-
tral London home in 2007.
In 2017, the Tory minister Damian
Green was sacked as first secretary of
state after admitting he had lied about
the presence of pornographic images on
his House of Commons computer.
Since it was set up in 2018, the ICGS
has conducted a number of investiga-
tions into the behaviour of MPs, includ-
ing most recently John Bercow, the
former Speaker of the Commons, who
was found to be a “serial bully”, and Mike
Hill, the former Labour MP for Hartle-
pool, who was accused of subjecting a
member of his staff to a campaign of sex-
ual harassment and bullying.
Although many within parliament
claim the creation of the ICGS is a vast
improvement on the scant protections
for staff, the culture has yet to change.
Some believe it has even got worse.
Last month Imran Ahmad Khan, a
Conservative MP, resigned following his
conviction for sexually assaulting a
15-year-old boy in 2008. Another Con-
servative MP, David Warburton, had the
whip suspended after it was revealed he
was under investigation over alleged sex-
ual harassment. One of Warburton’s
alleged victims worked for him — and his
office manager was his wife.
The case has led to calls for an over-
haul of working practices in parliament
where MPs employ staff directly and deal
with human resources problems them-
selves, making it difficult for employees
to challenge inappropriate behaviour.
Jenny Symmons, who works for the
Labour MP Sarah Owen and chairs the
GMB union branch representing MPs’
staff, said: “The ICGS was and is a bril-
liant improvement on what existed for
staff ... if you worked for an MP you had
no one to complain to about a workplace
issue other than your MP. Often, said MP
was indeed the workplace issue you
needed to report.
“We now have a mechanism to make
complaints and have them investigatedthoroughly and independently by
trained professionals. However it has not
changed the culture of bullying, sexual
harassment and the general abuses of
power that take place in Westminster.
The deference felt towards members of
parliament has not gone away.
“While they have the abilities to run
their offices (effectively small businesses)
however they like without oversight or
accountability, the miserable working
lives of some staff will not improve.”
Symmons said the union was calling
for the employment system for MPs’ staff
to be “revolutionised”.
“Power of employment must be taken
away from MPs, who arguably have more
important matters to focus on, and a cen-
tral body — be it the House of Commons
or the financial authority Ipsa [the Inde-
pendent Parliamentary Standards
Authority] — must take over the employ-
ment responsibility.
“MPs could still choose their team, in
the way big organisations do, but not
hold total control over the pay, holiday
allowance, working hours and working
conditions of their staff.
“This would be an astronomical
change in the way our archaic institution
works; but the culture of bullying and
exploitation in parliament is a rot that
requires the floors to be ripped out.”
Dame Andrea Leadsom, the former
leader of the House of Commons who led
a cross-party panel that oversaw the crea-
tion of the ICGS, agrees and now backs
the creation of a human resources ser-
vice for parliament.
However, she still believes the ICGS is
fit for purpose and will eventually help to
change the culture in parliament. She
said: “The problem has been that the
ICGS has not been able to employ enough
specialist investigators and this has
meant that a lot of the investigations have
taken too long. This means only a small
number of cases have gone through the
system but I firmly believe that once that
number increases and MPs see that there
are serious consequences for theirbehaviour then the culture will change.”
This weekend Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the
Speaker of the House of Commons, has
called for a review of working practices
and is seeking to establish a Speaker’s
conference “as soon as possible” to con-
sider the case for change.
He told The Sunday Times: “I believe it
is time we reviewed our working prac-
tices, and particularly whether it is right
that individual MPs are the employers of
their staff. Should someone else — or an
outside body — employ the staff, as long
as the MP has the right to choose them?
“This would mean that all new staff
would be employed on standard terms
and conditions. In addition, if a staff
member wanted to report a serious
breach of employment practice against
an MP, they would not have to go to that
very same MP to make that report; and
less serious complaints and grievances
could be resolved more quickly.
“For MPs, they would not have to add
the responsibilities of being a small
employer to an already important and
demanding job — and would have formal
support in managing their staff.”
Hoyle added: “I would like us to look at
best practice in other parliaments
around the world, to see if there are other
models that would work here. In my
opinion, it is time to consider radical
action and review structures and proc-
esses that could make a difference. Some
serious allegations have been made, and
we must address them as a matter of
urgency. It is imperative we do the right
thing by staff and MPs as well.
I want to make sure that everyone feels
they have support and somewhere to
turn — and to make this House not only a
safe and inclusive place to work, but a
model for other legislatures.”
While Hoyle’s proposals will be wel-
comed by many MPs, there will be others
who will question how easy it will be to
restore the reputation of a parliament so
mired in scandal.
Camilla Long, page 27One MP
was so
drunk
he had
to be led
awayAngela Rayner,
the deputy
Labour leader,
was the subject
of a lurid briefing
by an unnamed
Conservative MPThe Sunday Times May 1, 2022 7Five years after the ‘Pestminster’
scandal, the reputation of MPs is
back in the gutter. Lurid accounts of
drunkenness, sexism and harassment
have led to demands for lasting reform,
write Caroline Wheeler and Harry YorkeParty
animals
ILLUSTRATION:RUSSEL HERNEMAN AND JULIAN OSBALDSTONE* Let sin flourishThere are a lot of things they don’t tell
you when you become a journalist. It
isn’t like in a film, which is a shame. It
also isn’t like the 1980s, which is even
more of a shame, because I mainly took
the job in the hope of drinking at
lunchtime.
What they also don’t tell you is that
every man you go on a date with, on
hearing what you do for a living, will say
the same thing: “I hope you aren’t going
to write about me!” Every one of them,
without fail.
But, fool that I am, if he is charming
enough and his hair is floppy enough, I
will smile winsomely as if I had neverT
he meeting on Tuesday had
been called to quell growing
unease among female Tory MPs
about the ever-increasing
claims of sexual misconduct in
Westminster. Instead it had the
opposite effect, reigniting the
so-called “Pestminster” scandal
and plunging parliament back into a cri-
sis over sleaze.
The grenade detonated during a
65-minute session in which more than a
dozen women recounted their experien-
ces of misogyny, sexual harassment and
bullying. Two female MPs, one a minis-
ter, said they had seen a male MP watch-
ing pornography on his phone in the
House of Commons chamber.
Yesterday, the MP in question, Neil
Parish, representing Tiverton and Honi-
ton in Devon, stood down. He had been
suspended by the party after his name
emerged on Friday.
Chris Heaton-Harris, the chief whip,
had convened Tuesday’s meeting of the
2022 Committee, a revamp of the Con-
servative Women in Parliament group.
He was prompted to do after the
furore over Angela Rayner, Labour’s dep-
uty leader, who was the subject of a lurid
briefing by an unnamed Tory MP. He said
that she routinely crossed and uncrossed
her legs in the Commons to distract the
prime minister, Boris Johnson.
But if Heaton-Harris thought that it
would be an exercise in catharsis, the
anger that followed suggests he has
uncovered even more problems.
Last week The Sunday Times revealed
that three cabinet ministers and two
shadow cabinet ministers were among 56
MPs facing allegations of sexual miscon-
duct. MPs, peers, special advisers,
researchers and staff have now shared
their accounts of sexual harassment and
abuse in the corridors of power.
But while many involve low-level sex-
ism and outdated attitudes, there are also
serious allegations of sexual assault. The
common thread is a working environ-
ment where, despite endless promises of
reform, power trumps everything.
Underpinning this is a hard-drinking
culture. MPs are often separated from
their families for much of the week and
there is a large number of young, impres-
sionable researchers eager to rub shoul-
ders with their political idols.
Lockdowns and the closure of bars on
the parliamentary estate for much of the
past two years, as well as the influx of a
generation of young MPs after the 2019
general election, have made matters
worse.
One insider said that in recent weeks
an MP had become so drunk on cham-
pagne that they had been escorted from
the Pugin Room, one of the most opulent
hospitality venues in parliament. The
source also said that a female researcher
had consumed so much alcohol that she
vomited over a parliamentary bar. She
was later found unconscious outside the
room. A senior official blamed bar staff
for continuing to serve MPs and their
staff when they are inebriated.
Baroness Jenkin of Kennington, a
co-founder of the Women2Win group,
which aims to get more Tory women into
politics, described the culture in West-
minster as a “toxic mix of stress, and
booze and testosterone and power”. She
added: “I don’t know what the solution is
because you can’t do anything about tes-
tosterone and you can’t do much about
the stress of it, and the power is inevita-
ble. You can do something about the
booze.”
One of the most egregious examples of
drunken and disorderly behaviour cross-
ing into serious misconduct is that of a
senior MP who has been accused of
repeatedly licking the faces of male
researchers in parliamentary bars.
Several years ago a former govern-
ment adviser said that the same MP had
groped them on the estate during a social
event and later behaved inappropriately
towards one of their friends while they
were sleeping.
It has also been alleged that a female
Tory MP was sent an explicit photo-
graph, known as a “dick pic”, by a male
colleague. Another MP has been repeat-
edly warned about his use of prostitutes,
according to sources.
The allegations also extend to mem-
bers of the government. A minister has
been accused of having “noisy sex” in his
parliamentary office, frequently over-
heard by neighbouring MPs.
One of the most senior female MPs in
parliament, Anne-Marie Trevelyan,
revealed that she had been “pinned up
against a wall” by a colleague who made
sexual advances towards her.
Her cabinet colleague, Suella Braver-
man, the attorney-general, said that a
minority of men in politics “behave like
animals”.Below the level of serious offending,
there are myriad examples of low-level
misogyny and sexism which betray a cul-
ture still rooted in the past.
One female MP said that for a number
of years a minister had referred to her by
a nickname which implied that she was
sexually promiscuous, while another
said she was given a payroll job in govern-
ment only because she “had tits”.
A third prominent female MP, who was
wearing a calf-length leather skirt, was
asked by a male colleague what she “did
for her day job”, which she interpreted to
be a suggestion that she was dressed like
a prostitute.
Last week a Welsh MP claimed that one
of Sir Keir Starmer’s shadow cabinet
members had described her as a “secret
weapon” because women wanted to be
her friend and men wanted to sleep with
her. One MP said: “The problem is that
women in parliament are tolerated. They
are not seen as an asset. It’s very much a
boys’ club.”
Within No 10, it has been claimed that
the culture can be chauvinistic.
One insider revealed that during the
lockdown-breaking Christmas party on
December 18, 2020, a prize was handed
out during a mock award ceremony to
No 10’s “sexist of the year”.
The phenomenon is not confined to
the Westminster bubble. During a recent
by-election, two sources canvassing with
a married Conservative MP said that he
had joked: “Who needs Tinder when you
have got canvassing?”
Last week’s controversy is only the lat-
est chapter in a saga that began five years
ago when allegations of sexual harass-
ment by a number of MPs led to the crea-
tion of the Independent Complaints and
Grievance Scheme (ICGS). Sir Michael
Fallon, Charlie Elphicke and Stephen
Crabb were among MPs who faced allega-
tions of sexual impropriety.
Fallon resigned as a minister over a
string of allegations. Elphicke was jailed
for two years on three charges of sexual
assault. Two of the cases involved a par-heard it before and say something like:
“Well, I write about politics, so unless
you are about to be made shadow
transport secretary, I doubt I will.”
And you know what? He never is. I
made an executive decision a while ago
not to date anyone from the world of
Westminster. I spend enough of my
fleeting time on this godforsaken rock
talking about Boris Johnson’s future
without dedicating my evenings to it too.
But even if I had not made that choice, I
can guarantee no politician would ask
me out. Why? Because he would be
scared I would write about it.
Asking someone out on a date is not
sexual harassment, but the following
does tell us something about how sexual
harassment works in Westminster. When
I was 21, bottom of the pecking order as a
junior researcher in parliament and,
frankly, barely able to work my own
washing machine, it was constant. I
assumed it was just the way of the world.
Nothing to be done.And then something odd started to
happen. As I began to work my way up
the ranks, ending up as a civil servant
in Downing Street, the harassment
began to fall away. Now, some years
after I jumped ship to journalism, I can
barely remember the last time someone
tried it on.
A few months ago I sat down to think
about why this might be. And there, with
horrifying clarity, was the realisation:
sexual harassment in Westminster is not
about sex. It is about power. Often it is
about seeking out the most powerless
person in the room. Once you have
realised this, you see it everywhere in
the bars of parliament. Powerful older
men looming over bright 22-year-old
women: young women who will realise
only in a few years’ time quite how much
they don’t want what is about to happen,
to happen.
I do not have power in any
conventional sense. But the fact that I
could write about any of these men givesme a degree of protection — power by
the back door. Those young women do
not have that luxury.
I remember being one of them: so
grown up, so professional, so utterly
unprepared. Now these are all just
stories I regale my friends with in the
pub, to exuberant shrieks of horror.
Go on, Charlotte, tell them about
the MP you were introduced to who
replied: “I know who you are: you’re
the one with the legs.” Or the
backbencher who sat down next to you
just before you were about to go on the
radio, fixed you in the eye and said: “My
greatest regret in life is I’ve never f***ed
a ginger.”
And then there are the other, much
darker stories. The kind I will never
write down until libel laws in this
country become a lot more relaxed
or I am too close to retirement to
care. I suspect I know which will
come first.
We hear about the harassment offamous women in Westminster, women
with real power: Angela Rayner,
Caroline Nokes. I suspect even in these
cases much of the sexism they face is
also about power: an attempt to take it
away. We hear less about the powerless
women at the bottom of the food chain,
overawed by the power around them
and far more vulnerable than anyone
realises.
Yes, this behaviour comes from a
small minority of the men in parliament.
And, yes, there are worse things
happening in the world. Domestic
violence. Rape as a weapon of war. We
should talk about those things more. But
I still get a sinking feeling in my stomach
when I glance across a Westminster bar
and feel a jolt of recognition.
There are a lot of things they don’t tell
you when you start work in Westminster.
It isn’t like the films, which is a relief. It
isn’t like the 1980s. But it certainly feels
that way, sometimes.
@CharlotteIversCHARLOTTE
IVERSIt’s the tales I can’t afford to tell that would really shock you
I had
assumed
it was
just the
way of
the
world