Two front-benchers under parliamentary investigation for alleged sexual harassment have never been suspended. Geraint Davies, who was set to contest new constituency against right-wing ‘homophobe’ Carolyn Harris, says he’s not under investigation but has been suspended by Starmer’s Labour
Labour back-bench MP for Swansea West Geraint Davies has been suspended by the party over allegations of inappropriate ‘sexual attention’ toward female staff. Davies has said he ‘does not recognise’ the allegations and that no complaints have been made to the party or to Parliament about him.
Davies was set to contest the selection, for a new Swansea constituency under the coming boundary changes, with his right-wing neighbour, the controversial Swansea East MP Carolyn Harris, who was criticised but not punished after allegedly making frequent homophobic remarks to a colleague. Harris apologised for her behaviour but denied homophobia, claiming her comments were ‘office banter’, but her then-employer, Sian James, told a court that she had warned Harris for making ‘homophobic slurs’.
Davies’s suspension is in sharp contrast to Keir Starmer’s complete lack of action concerning right-wing MPs accused of sexual misconduct and even endangering women, particularly if Davies’s claim that there have been no formal complaints is correct. Starmer currently has two MPs on his front bench who are under formal investigation by Parliament for sexual harassment, but has never named them or suspended them pending the outcome of the investigation to protect female staff and colleagues.
Similarly, Chris Matheson resigned as an MP after being found guilty by a parliamentary panel of ‘threatening’ sexual harassment – but Starmer had taken no action while Matheson was under investigation. Senior right-wing staff have also avoided any action while the party tried to silence their victims, while right-wing MP Neil Coyle has been welcomed back to the parliamentary Labour party despite racist comments and findings that he sexually harassed at least one woman.
And despite repeated and urgent warnings from whistleblower Elaina Cohen that the staffer and lover of right-wing (then-) frontbencher Khalid Mahmood was ‘criminally’ and ‘sadistically’ abusing and exploiting vulnerable domestic violence victims, Starmer and his general secretary David Evans covered up the abuse – and took no action against Mahmood even after a tribunal found he had unfairly dismissed Ms Cohen and he did not contest a victim’s testimony of what she suffered at his lovers hands. Mahmood has since faced allegations of corruption, which he has denied, yet Starmer still took no action.
Ms Cohen commented on the contrast via her Twitter feed:
The hypocrisy and brazenness of the Starmer regime is a danger to women, yet the ‘mainstream’ media continues to ignore it even when Starmer frequently claims to be a protector of women. Questions also need to be asked about the contrast between Starmer’s decision to quickly suspend a back-bench MP who was potentially going to oust a controversial right-winger under the boundary changes, while right-wing MPs alleged to have done the same or worse remain cosseted and anonymous.
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