the times | Saturday May 28 2022 23News
Starmer ignored
bullying claims,
tribunal is told
Neil Johnston, Fariha Karim refusal to become a second wife with an
Islamic nikah [ceremony].”
She continued to work for him and
said she was one of three women “he
had promised but failed to marry”.
Among other allegations, Cohen said
Mahmood was open to meeting arms
dealers in the Middle East when he was
shadow Europe minister.
She said that in 2018, Hussain was
employed by Mahmood after he
“stalked” her on Facebook. Cohen said
she was alarmed when she was contact-
ed by women who had worked with
Hussain in a previous role who said
they had been “sexually exploited, bul-
lied and blackmailed into crime by her”.
The tribunal was presented with a
statement from “Victim A” to back Co-
hen’s claims, This said Hussain had set
up a WhatsApp group called the “Big-
ger, Better A team” for workers of a do-
mestic abuse charity.
The group was said to have socialised
with Waseem Zaffar, a Labour council-
lor, and Waheed Saleem, who went on
to become deputy police and crime
commissioner.
Victim A said the WhatsApp group
started to “take on sinister tones” and
other women from the charity “were
used for the private entertainment of
important people such as Waseem Zaf-
far and Waheed Saleem.”
Cohen said Hussain had “invited
women on to the group as entertain-
ment for the men”. She said she told
Mahmood about Hussain’s alleged
“criminal exploitation, blackmail,
threats of violence and fraud allega-
tions” but he “went ballistic”. “He said
he would sack me because he had
enough of my lies and attacks against
Saraya.”
Cohen said she had contacted the La-
bour Party with her concerns, copying
in Starmer, but no action was taken.
Labour did not respond to requests
for comment but Mahmood told the tri-
bunal he called an inquiry into Cohen’s
conduct. He accused her of behaving in
an “irrational” way.them in 1986: Ray Ban.
Its aviators were
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Shopping searches
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You don’t need one
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Classic aviators are
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Meghan’s are from
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With that price tag,
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Ray-Bans and Tom Cruise
in the new Top Gun. They
are in vogue in Paris tooSir Keir Starmer took no action after
being told about claims that an MP was
bullying a staff member and harbou-
ring a female abuser who had sourced
vulnerable women for “entertainment”,
an employment tribunal has been told.
The Labour leader and his staff were
contacted by Elaina Cohen, 62, a
former aide and lover of Khalid Mah-
mood, MP for Perry Barr. She is claim-
ing unfair dismissal against him.
The Central London employment
tribunal was told that Mahmood was an
attempted bigamist who misused hisparliamentary expenses for political
gain and agreed to meet an arms dealer
representing Pakistan.
Cohen, 62, implicated Starmer in the
row after claiming that his office
ignored her concerns. She was also
painted as “jealous” of Mahmood’s sup-
posed interest in Saraya Hussain, a new
female member of staff.
The claims were made during an un-
fair dismissal case where Cohen alleged
she was the victim of racial and reli-
gious discrimination and harassment.
Judgment has been reserved. Mah-
mood is defending the case and denies
the claims.
Cohen was sacked last year by Mah-
mood who claims that she “humiliated”
him by calling him a “first class idiot” in
emails to Starmer.
Cohen, who is Jewish and a former
Tory, was introduced to Mahmood on a
trip to Pakistan, after the 2001 election.
She was hired as his assistant in 2003
and they began a relationship but this
ended in 2005. Cohen said Mahmood
“claimed that the breakdown... was myKhalid Mahmood
“went ballistic”
over claims