A female Labour MP has reported a shadow frontbench MP to the Metropolitan police, claiming he sexually assaulted her.
The alleged incident is said to have taken place after a summer party in London in July 2021. But the MP decided to approach the Met in recent weeks, the police have confirmed.
She is reluctant to make a formal complaint through Labour’s own independent complaints system, although she was encouraged to, as she felt his popularity within the party would not help her case.
The female MP is said to have spoken to Labour whips over safeguarding issues and concerns about a “wider pattern of behaviour”.
Asked about the case, first reported by Tortoise, a spokesperson for Keir Starmer said the party’s leader took a “zero-tolerance approach to sexual harassment”.
A Labour spokesperson 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 we believe individuals can have confidence in.”
It is understood that Labour would not usually suspend an individual until a formal complaint or other substantive information had been received. None has yet been forthcoming.
The Met 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. Enquiries were at assessment stage. A formal investigation had not been launched.”
The renewed focus on Labour’s internal complains processes comes after it emerged on Wednesday that the party took three years to investigate a separate allegation of sexual harassment made by a woman against a senior aide.
The man, who is 20 years the complainant’s senior, had been allowed to continue working for the party advising a Labour frontbencher, even though the complaint was upheld.
However, a Labour spokesperson later confirmed that the aide had resigned. “Two separate investigations were carried out … 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,” they said.
In response to the initial allegations, Starmer’s spokesperson insisted the party leader was “confident the process is independent, thorough and robust”.
Pressed on the the speed of the complaints process, he added: “There are a range of factors as to why these processes can take time, down to the level of cooperation from the person … the allegation is being made against.
“Or there can be cases where the complainant may want to take the case at a certain pace, given their experience. We should respect that and allow the case to be taken at a pace that is appropriate to the circumstance.”
Before he quit, the former intern told Politico she felt “let down twice – by the man who chose to make me feel intimidated and vulnerable in my workplace, and by the party, which appears to be content to let him keep his job and risk other young women facing the same experience”.
Claire Reynolds, the director of Labour Women’s Network, has acknowledged that the party’s complaints system has made huge strides in recent years – but suggested more needed to be done.
She told the Guardian: “We believe women will only have full confidence in a wholly independent system from first contact to final outcome.”
