Local MP speaks about unwanted attention from politician with 'wandering hands'
Local Labour MP Rupa Huq has spoken of how she was sexually harassed when she was in her twenties by a male MEP at the European Parliament.
The Ealing Central & Acton MP has written a column in The Guardian about her experience, as the debate over allegations of inappropriate behaviour involving MPs and ministers intensified. Prime Minister Theresa May is under increasing pressure to put a robust system in place to deal with the issue.
Recalling her own unpleasant experience, Rupa wrote: "Half a lifetime ago, however – back in 1995, as a student in Strasbourg volunteering at the European parliament – I was on the receiving end of unwanted attention from a male MEP with wandering hands. I didn’t come forward at the time for the reason many women don’t. The asymmetry of power relations cements a culture of control, with the young and powerless fearful that it will be career-ending for them.
Rupa told Sky News in a television interview, that the MEP's "wandering hands found their way onto me, which I did not like and I did not do anything about because it was such an imbalanced power relation".
She added: "It shocked me when I felt these hands slithering towards me and I think I was quite startled more than anything else, and I can't believe I'm the only person he did that to, to be honest."
The sexual harassment scandal broke last week when it was revealed female members of staff in Westminster use WhatsApp to warn each other about "sex pest" MPs from all parties.
In the article, Rupa Huq described the Westminster political environment: "In this line of work there is a potentially explosive mix of ingredients: late hours, booze-fuelled receptions, bars aplenty and many MPs living away from home in the week, far from their families. You could see how temptation might come knocking to the weak-willed.
"In addition to this, demand for positions far outstrips supply in the mother of parliaments. All MPs, me included, receive multiple requests daily from people offering to work for us, sometimes for free. With those in positions of power alongside those desperate for a foothold, abuse of power can result."
Ms Huq said that MPs needed to act quickly on sex abuse, or politics would be brought into disrepute.
"These things occur behind closed doors, as domestic abuse by definition does, and most women do not want to relive the experience through the courts, or don’t even feel they will be believed. In my case, I was in a foreign country to boot. Now I’m the one in a position of relative power, albeit as an opposition backbench MP, and want to stop similar things – or worse still – happening to any young staffer today.
"The detail of what the government announced in parliament this week in response to an urgent question put by Harriet Harman is vague. We need robust, transparent processes with an independent adjudicatory body whose staff are fully trained in sexual abuse issues rather than “being seen to do something” using existing parliamentary personnel."
Prime Minister Theresa
May is under pressure to deal with the allegations. Commons leader Andrea
Leadsom said MPs must "put their house in order" quickly because
everyone "had to a right to feel at ease" working in Parliament.
She confirmed that the Cabinet Office was investigating specific allegations
about whether individuals had broken the ministerial code and said the
most serious allegations should be referred to the police.
One political website reported that Tory aides have compiled a list of 36 Conservative MPs, including 20 ministers, who are accused of inappropriate behaviour.
Meanwhile, The Daily Telegraph said a list of 13 MPs facing harassment allegations has been circulating.
October 31, 2017