The chair of the House of Commons standards committee has said he has been sexually assaulted by fellow MPs on several occasions during his time in parliament.
Chris Bryant, the Labour MP for Rhondda, has made the revelation in his new book, Code of Conduct, Why We Need to Fix Parliament – and How to Do it.
“Over the years five male MPs have felt my bottom uninvited,” he wrote in the book, extracts of which have been published by the i paper.
“One of them, who was not out, did so repeatedly. Another, who is still in the house and still does not accept that he is gay, pushed me against a wall and felt my crotch. Another rubbed himself behind me in the queue to vote and was later snogging two men in the Strangers’ Bar. I know other gay MPs and staff who have faced the same.”
Bryant has been prominent in drawing attention to misconduct in parliament, and is senior among those charged with upholding standards among MPs. This has made him a target, with extra scrutiny on his own propriety.
But he has said he favours being forthright about his failings, rather than trying to portray himself as a saint. Among those failings, he acknowledged, has been contributing to the hushing-up of bad behaviour that had allowed it to flourish in parliament.
Last year, he told LBC radio: “I remember when I came out in 2001, I was regularly touched up by older, senior, gay – they weren’t out – MPs. I never felt I was able to report it because you end up being part of the story, and that’s the last thing you want. And I think a lot of women have been through that.”
He added: “I can think of four MPs in division lobbies. I was shocked at the time and I bet you could guess who the four MPs are.”
In his book, he says: “I can be impulsive, sanctimonious and pompous.” And: “I know there are occasions when I have got my facts wrong, and the whirligig of politics has spun so fast I haven’t corrected the record.”
He called for influence over the parliamentary timetable to be shared in the Commons in order to improve the functioning of the political system at Westminster. He said he believed many problems were caused by the “winner takes it all mentality”, the i reported.
For example, he said it was counterproductive to give the government almost total control over the legislative timetable. “The Labour party aspires to be the party of the people. So, you would think that the spreading of power would be fundamentally part of a Labour project,” he said.
