An east London MP has attacked Waltham Forest council for keeping malicious allegations that she is an unfit mother on her social services record despite them being made by a man convicted of harassing her.
Stella Creasy said Waltham Forest council had repeatedly refused to remove the accusations made by Philip Stacey, despite them being proven to be false, and accused her local authority of "misogyny".
The town hall was required to investigate his allegations and said it is bound by the law to keep the complaints on file.
Stacey, 52, from Wigston, Leicestershire, told police that Ms Creasy's children should be taken into care due to her "extreme views" and supposedly “anti-men” stance.
He was sentenced to 14-weeks in prison suspended for one year, given a three-year restraining order and told to complete 120 hours of unpaid work in 2023 for bombarding the Walthamstow MP with abuse. The judge described it as one of the worst cases of harassment he had seen.
Ms Creasy this week again argued that the complaints should be expunged and the law changed.
She told the Commons: "This is not an issue of how data is used to safeguard but how data can be used to harm in its existence. Because it is not a benign matter to have such a record associated with your name.
"Anyone who has ever been to A&E knows the question 'is your child known to social services' is not a neutral enquiry. Unless we have a way of removing data designed to harass that will perpetuate the harassment.
"My local authority has not labeled the fathers who are MPs in my borough in the same way, but it argues that it must retain this data by use of Section 47 of the Children's Act regarding children who might reasonably be at risk of harm from an individual.
"To add insult to injury, the council has not offered to delete this data but for me to add to it a note to dispute the person who has been convicted of harassing me about claims of my fitness to be a parent which they might consider including.
"To add more data to a file, rather than provide for the mechanism to remove it and the link between myself, my family and these allegations and the gentleman who harassed me in the first place. I have not had any form of apology or acknowledgement."
Ms Creasy said that it was right a "high bar" was set when it came to child safeguarding, but argued that the law should be changed so people can remove "malicious" complaints and accusations from official records.
She added: "We can't delete the misogyny at the heart of Waltham Forest council's response, but we could finally delete the records of others like them and move on with our lives."
A Waltham Forest council spokesman said: “All councils in the UK have a legal obligation to record and retain all safeguarding concerns and reports. We cannot pick and choose which allegations to keep on a file and which to discard.
“Even where allegations are understood or suspected to be malicious, they remain an important part of a child’s records and contribute to the assessment of risk from a third party to a child or their parents.
“Our primary concern is always the safety and wellbeing of children. We will continue to work in line with our legal duties - we will properly investigate and record all safeguarding allegations, as residents would rightly expect.
“We have offered Ms. Creasy the opportunity to visit us and view her child’s full record as part of a full and comprehensive explanation of what our obligations are. Our offer remains open.
“Safeguarding allegations against any individual, whether they are male or female, will be investigated in the same way - in line with our legal requirements.”
