North East MP and Cabinet Minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan has told how she was once “pinned against a wall” by a senior male MP as the fallout over misogyny and sexual misconduct in Parliament continues.
The International Trade Secretary, who is MP for Berwick, told LBC Radio that she had often been the subject of “wandering hands” in Parliament.
She said: “I’ve witnessed and been at the sharp end of misogyny from some colleagues many times over. We might describe it as wandering hands, if you like, we might describe it as, you know, a number of years ago being pinned up against a wall by a male MP who is now no longer in the House, I’m pleased to say, declaring that I must want him because he was a powerful man.
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“These sorts of things, these power abuses, that a very small minority, thank goodness, of male colleagues show is completely unacceptable”.
Ms Trevelyan added she had been subjected to “wandering hands” by “half a dozen” men in Westminster, some of whom were “repeat offenders”. On Sky News, the Trade Secretary told male colleagues to “keep your hands in your pockets and behave as you would if you had your daughter in the room”.
She said the vast majority of her male colleagues are “delightful” and “committed parliamentarians”. But she added: “But there are a few for whom too much drink, or indeed a sort of, a view that somehow being elected makes them, you know, God’s gift to women, that they can suddenly please themselves, that is never OK, that kind of behaviour, disrespect for women.”
She dismissed calls for a ban on alcohol in Parliament, saying: “There’s nothing wrong with having having a drink with your colleagues. Responsible drinking has to be the way forwards, and we continue to try and improve that”.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson is under growing pressure to remove the whip from a Tory MP accused of watching pornography in the Commons chamber. Ms Trevelyan described the claims as “completely unacceptable”, but declined to say whether the unnamed Conservative MP should be sacked and denied that her party specifically has a misogyny problem.
“I haven’t had the chance to talk to the chief whip, and I know the ladies in question who apparently saw this completely, completely inappropriate activity have been encouraged to use the formal system in the House of Commons to be able to report it, and I hope very much that they will or indeed have, I don’t know, and that the system will demonstrate if that was the case, exactly what the punishment should be for that sort of inappropriate behaviour.”
The claims about pornography followed reports that 56 MPs, including three Cabinet ministers, are facing allegations of sexual misconduct referred to the ICGS. They also follow outrage over The Mail On Sunday publishing “sexist” and disputed claims from unnamed Tory MPs that deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner tried to distract Mr Johnson with her legs during Prime Minister’s Questions.
