Sexual harassment claimants 'losing faith in Labour process'

A woman who accused a Labour MP of sexual harassment has said she and other complainants are losing faith in the party’s processes to deal with the issue.

Ava Etemadzadeh, who claims she was harassed by the now-suspended Labour MP Kelvin Hopkins, said she knew of several people who have told her they were now not willing to make complaints under the current process, but were waiting for an independent parliamentary system to be introduced.

Her warning that complainants are concerned about the neutrality of proceedings follows the news that John Woodcock MP said that he would no longer cooperate with the disciplinary process against him.

Woodcock, who was suspended by the party in April after allegations of inappropriate behaviour towards a female aide, has written to Labour’s general secretary, Jennie Formby, saying he has no faith in the process and demanding an independent investigation. He denies the claims against him.

Etemadzadeh, the treasurer of the Young Fabians, has previously accused Kelvin Hopkins of sending her a text saying young men would be “lucky to have you as a girlfriend and a lover” and has also accused the MP of rubbing his crotch against her during an embrace at an event in 2014. Hopkins has said he “absolutely and categorically” denies any inappropriate conduct.

The activist originally made her complaint in 2015, after which Hopkins was given a warning but later promoted to the shadow cabinet. When the party overhauled its complaints system in the wake of the #MeToo movement, Etemadzadeh resubmitted her complaint against Hopkins, who has been suspended from the party.

A new independent complaints procedure has been proposed for staff working at Westminster, drawn up by a cross-party working group of MPs and staff. The new system, if adopted by MPs, will grant the parliamentary commissioner for standards, Kathryn Stone, new powers to suspend MPs found to have harassed parliamentary staff.

MPs may be given a “Commons Asbo” ordering them to stay away from victims or from certain places in parliament, such as parliament’s bars. For the most serious cases, an MP could be “recalled” – a formal process for them to lose their seat.

However, there is no date set yet for a vote by MPs to adopt the new rules.

Etemadzadeh said she had still not been informed, seven months later, of a date for Hopkins’s hearing at the party’s highest disciplinary body, the national constitutional committee.

“My experience with the Labour system, which came into force in November, has been very disappointing to say the least,” she wrote in a piece for the Guardian. “It was only through the media that I found out about the development of my case. There is still no final decision, and the party tends to be easily swayed by what’s reported in the media.”

The activist has started a petition for the party to create an independent complaints procedure. She said she had concerns that the party “appoints and pays for a legal counsel to represent you at the NCC hearing”.

“A Labour appointed representative makes it hard to see how it can truly be independent,” she said.

In his letter to party chiefs, Woodcock said he was “withdrawing my cooperation from your tainted disciplinary process and hereby requesting that you make arrangements to transfer the complaint made against me into the genuinely independent procedure being formulate by the parliamentary authorities, or to ask the president of the Law Society to appoint an appropriately qualified, independent arbiter to investigate it.

“I strongly deny the charges of sexual harassment formulated against me by Labour’s national executive committee but understand the submitted complaint should be thoroughly and fairly investigated.”

The party strongly denies it has leaked information about cases and said the lawyer it had appointed was independent and would represent the party in its case against Hopkins.

A Labour spokesperson said: “The Labour party takes all complaints of sexual harassment extremely seriously, which are fully investigated and any appropriate disciplinary action taken in line with party rules and procedures. The process is the same for everyone.

“We are determined to challenge and overturn sexual harassment and misogyny within politics and the corridors of power, and across society as a whole.”

A party source said cases would be taken forward regardless of the complainant’s cooperation and stressed that cases that came before the sexual harassment panel are anonymised, adding that the NCC was an independent body, entirely separate from the government national executive committee and the party leadership.