Scandals involving MPs are no rarity. They seem to come along in batches every few years. There were the sleaze allegations that rocked John Major’s government in the 1990s, the #MeToo reckoning in 2017 and the succession of them that helped bring down Boris Johnson’s government in 2022.
As part of Labour’s drive to modernise parliament, the responsibility for handling some of the more serious misconduct complaints against MPs is to be handed over to the independent parliamentary process. This would mean that rather than investigating them internally, parties would refer complaints of bullying, harassment and sexual misconduct to the Independent Complaints and Grievance System (ICGS).
Proponents say this would standardise the way such cases are dealt with and improve confidence in the process, as well as ensure that MPs are given a fair hearing. The Guardian looks at some cases where internal party processes have fallen short.
John Woodcock
John Woodcock. Photograph: Chris McAndrew
John Woodcock was suspended from the Labour party in April 2018 amid claims he sent inappropriate messages to a former member of staff, which he denied. At the time, Woodcock was a Labour MP and a fierce critic of Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, and questioned the “integrity of the process”. He withdrew from the party’s investigation that June and said he believed it was politically motivated, before resigning from Labour altogether in July to sit as an independent MP.
Since leaving the Commons and joining the Lords, Woodcock, now Lord Walney, has said he would welcome an investigation by the ICGS.
Chris Pincher
Chris Pincher. Photograph: UK Parliament/PA Media
Chris Pincher, then a Conservative MP, quit the whips’ office after the former rower and Tory activist Alex Story accused him of making unwanted passes and acting like a “pound shop Harvey Weinstein” towards him in 2001. He denied the allegations and a party investigation later cleared Pincher of wrongdoing.
In 2019, Pincher was brought back into the government by Boris Johnson, as a Foreign Office minister. The former FCDO permanent secretary Simon McDonald said he made Johnson aware of complaints against Pincher in that department and opened a formal investigation into them.
When Pincher faced fresh allegations in 2022, Downing Street denied that Johnson had knowledge of past complaints against him. McDonald went public with his account, spelling the end of Johnson’s premiership.
Mike Hill
Mike Hill. Photograph: Gary Calton/The Observer
A woman who was repeatedly sexually assaulted by the former Labour MP Mike Hill attacked the Labour party’s internal processes after a tribunal found against him.
An employment tribunal ruled that Hill conducted a campaign of sexual harassment and bullying against his parliamentary staff member before victimising her when she refused his advances.
In a statement released through her solicitor, the victim said she was “extraordinarily disappointed and shocked at the lack of support from the Labour party” after she decided to pursue a case against Hill. She later said that “the party only reached out to contact me when I spoke to the media”.
Imran Ahmad Khan
Imran Ahmad Khan. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA Media
In 2022, the former Conservative MP Imran Ahmad Khan was sentenced to 18 months in jail for sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy after plying him with gin at a party in 2008.
After the verdict was delivered, colleagues of Khan said he had a history of bullying behaviour that the Conservative party had failed to act on.
Politico reported that a Conservative party member who had worked with Khan made a complaint to the party via her employer, which the Tories later said they had no record of. Khan declined to comment on the allegations to Politico.
Nick Brown and Conor McGinn
Nick Brown. Photograph: Ben Stansall/AFP/Getty Images
In September 2022, Nick Brown, Labour’s long-serving former chief whip, was suspended after an unspecified complaint was made against him to the party. He said he was not aware of its nature but was “cooperating fully” with the investigation.
Conor McGinn. Photograph: Jonathan Brady/PA Media
A few months later, in December 2022, Conor McGinn was suspended from the Labour party after an unspecified complaint was lodged against him. McGinn said at the time that he had not been given the details but was confident the complaint was “entirely unfounded”.
Both McGinn and Brown resigned from Labour before the respective investigations were completed and attacked the party’s internal complaints process. Brown said the allegations against him were “entirely false, without even the faintest germ of any truth to them” and had come from “a political rival within the party” concerning an alleged event said to have taken place more than 25 years earlier. McGinn said the complaint against him was “unfounded” and had “sat in an unclear process” for more than a year. No more information about either complaint was ever made public.
