Female Labour MP reports shadow minister to police for ‘sexual assault’

A Labour MP reported a shadow minister to the police for allegedly sexually assaulting her, it has emerged.

The alleged incident is said to have taken place after a summer party in London in July 2021.

The MP, who has not been named, contacted the Metropolitan Police two months ago to make the allegation.

The identity of the alleged male perpetrator has also not been made public. The MP has now asked police to drop the investigation.

Despite the accusation, Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, has not suspended the party whip from the MP - despite his alleged “zero tolerance” of sexual abuse.

It comes just a day after the Labour leader was accused of hypocrisy for allowing a senior aide to keep his job even though he had allegedly groped an intern.

On Thursday, it emerged that the aide - who has not been named - had resigned.

'Pretty disgraceful'

Many in the party have been left appalled by the reports, with one source describing the successive days of revelations as “pretty disgraceful”.

A second source feared many more allegations could follow, in a similar way to how the floodgates opened during the “Pestminster” scandal of 2017.

The latest incident was first reported by the Tortoise news website, which said the alleged victim had also spoken to Labour whips over safeguarding issues and concerns about a “wider pattern of behaviour”.

She is said to have been reluctant to make a formal complaint, although she was encouraged to do so, as she felt his popularity within the party would not help her case, the report claimed.

A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police said: “In March 2023, police received a report that a woman was sexually assaulted by a man in London in July 2021.

“At the victim’s request the incident will not now be investigated at this time.”

It is believed that the Metropolitan Police’s enquiries were at an “assessment stage” and that a formal investigation had not been launched.

A Labour Party spokesman said: "”We take any allegations of this sort very seriously and would always encourage individuals to go to the parliamentary process, the Labour Party process or the police.

“In terms of the Labour Party process, it is a thorough, robust and independent process that individuals can have confidence in.”

'Zero tolerance approach'

On Wednesday, Sir Keir’s spokesman said the party leader took a “zero tolerance approach to sexual harassment” and was “confident the process is independent, thorough and robust”.

It came after the website Politico reported that Labour took three years to investigate a harassment complaint against an aide to a current shadow frontbencher.

He is said to be some 20 years older than the woman who lodged a complaint about the alleged incident, which took place while she was working as an intern with the party.

Two separate inquiries upheld the allegation, Politico added, claiming that a parliamentary inquiry led to the man being told to write a letter of apology, while Labour’s own process saw him issued with a “final written warning”.

The woman was only told this month her complaint had been upheld, the Politico report added, and claimed she had heard other accounts of inappropriate behaviour by the same individual.

A Labour Party spokesman said: “Two separate investigations were carried out - one at Parliament, the other via the Labour Party - into the same complaint received about an individual.

“He fully complied with the processes of both of those investigations and the remedial action recommended. This individual has now left his position.”