Britain’s opposition Labor Party has been engulfed in fresh allegations of misconduct after a female MP reported a shadow minister to the Metropolitan Police over allegations he sexually assaulted her.
The incident allegedly happened after a summer party in London in July 2021, according to turtle website, which first revealed the claims.
The website said it found two sources who learned of the assault from the First Bench MP shortly afterwards, while another shadow minister was also made aware of the allegation.
The Metropolitan Police said on Thursday they “received a report in March that a woman was sexually assaulted by a man in London in July 2021. At the request of the victim, the incident will no longer be investigated. ‘investigation”.
Labor said its internal process was “thorough, robust and independent”.
“We take any such allegation very seriously and always encourage individuals to turn to the Parliamentary process, the Labor Party process or the police.”
A party official added that Labor had taken no action as no complaint had been lodged.
The allegations came a day after a separate report said the party took three years to investigate a sexual harassment complaint allegedly made against a senior party official by a young woman.
The man had kept his job despite the complaint confirmed by two investigations. But after the revelations were published by the Politico news site, Labor announced on Thursday that he was no longer in office.
After the first investigation, through the internal parliamentary complaints process, upheld the woman’s complaint, the man was instructed to write a letter of apology.
She then lodged a complaint with Labor in 2020 and was told this month her complaint was upheld, with a ‘final warning’ written to the man.
“This ordeal has made me feel abandoned twice – by the man who chose to make me feel intimidated and vulnerable in my workplace, and by the party who seem content to let him keep his job,” said she told Politico.
His revelation angered female Labor MPs, with one telling the FT: ‘These people are protected every time and the staff are not convinced that if they go to the whips office they will get the support and discretion they deserve”.
Labor MPs have been dogged by further allegations of misconduct, with five losing the whip last year for various alleged transgressions, although Labor has not revealed the nature of all of them.
Conor McGinn, who was the party’s deputy national campaign co-ordinator until last September, was suspended from parliamentary Labor in December after an undisclosed complaint. He said last week that he would not run in the next general election.
Nick Brown, former chief whip, lost the whip last September after an unspecified allegation.
Neil Coyle lost the whip after allegations he made a racist comment to a reporter at a Commons bar, while Rupa Huq had the whip temporarily suspended for making a ‘racist’ comment about former Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng . She later apologized on Twitter, calling her comments “misjudged”.
Christina Rees lost the whip in October after allegations of intimidation of constituency staff.
Investigations into Rees, Brown and McGinn continue. At the time, Rees said in a statement that she was “not aware of the specifics of the complaint” but was “cooperating fully with the investigation,” and Brown said he was not “unaware” of the nature of the complaint but that he was “fully cooperating” with the party’s investigation.
McGinn said at the time, he was confident that the complaint was “totally unfounded”. “I strongly reject any suggestion of wrongdoing,” he said.
The Coyle investigation is over but the party has yet to decide on a course of action. On his Twitter feed Coyle previously said he was “deeply sorry” for his “offensive behavior and language”.
Another Labor MP, Christian Matheson, resigned last October after a parliamentary watchdog recommended he be suspended for ‘serious sexual misconduct’ after he made unwanted and unwelcome sexual advances to a member of staff.
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