Labour has urged Theresa May to ensure the same punishments are meted out to MPs on both sides of the House of Commons as the sexual harassment scandal in Westminster escalates.



Dawn Butler, the shadow equalities minister, raised the issue with the prime minister at a cross-party summit in parliament on Monday to discuss how to respond to the crisis.

A series of allegations in recent weeks have led to Michael Fallon’s resignation as defence minister, and seen the whip suspended from the Dover MP, Charlie Elphicke.

But Butler pointed out that neither Stephen Crabb, who apologised for engaging in “sexual chatter” with a woman who had applied for a job in his office, nor the trade minister Mark Garnier, who admitted asking an assistant to buy sex toys, have been suspended while their cases are investigated.

Damian Green, the first secretary of state, also remains in his post while allegations that he made unwanted sexual advances to the journalist Kate Maltby are investigated.

Butler said the meeting had shown that May took the issue of sexual harassment seriously, but it was important to ensure all parties applied sanctions consistently.

“It’s important for the accuser, because if you accuse somebody of something it’s important that you know what will happen to them as a result, and it’s important if you are the person who’s accused,” she said.

Labour has suspended two MPs – Kelvin Hopkins and Jared O’Mara – over allegations of inappropriate behaviour. A third, Clive Lewis, is also being investigated after an activist claimed he had grabbed her bottom.

At Monday’s meeting, the party leaders agreed to set up a cross-party working group to consider how to strengthen protections for parliamentary staff, and to beef up human resources support for MPs.

The Green party leader, Caroline Lucas, told the Guardian the summit had been “broadly constructive and helpful”, with a common agreement on the need for urgent action.

Lucas said there had been some resistance to her proposal for parliament to directly employ MPs’ staff, rather than the politicians themselves being ultimately responsible. “At the moment, there is not support for that, which I did feel was disappointing. I think it’s really clear that 650 MPs are not qualified employers,” she said.

Lucas said that although there had been broad support for MPs to be given management training, that had not been widened to include consent. “It’s quite clear some MPs do not get that,” she said. “It’s something I want to continue to raise in the forum.”

In the agenda for the meeting, May had proposed upgrading the current support for staff, changing the telephone hotline for staff to report abuse to an in-person HR support, as well as a new independent grievance process. Lucas said she and others had pressed to ensure the new process would include constituency staff and anyone working on the parliamentary estate, such as agency cleaners.

“The devil will be in the detail,” Lucas said. “The meeting was short and we did not get into much of the detail. One of my ongoing concerns with the independent grievance process and with the working process is that we should be making sure we are building in ways of getting advice from specialists in sexual violence, so we are guided by that. It’s important we recognise there is expertise outside of parliament we should be drawing on.”

The Liberal Democrat leader, Vince Cable, called the proposals “the right first cross-party steps” but said the complaints system must be robustly independent. His deputy, Jo Swinson, who also attended the talks, said she hoped the summit would be the start of a change in Westminster.

Earlier in the day, May defended her approach to the sexual harassment scandal, saying she had been made aware of more issues that were not yet in the public domain. Speaking at the CBI annual conference, May said changes were not about trying to regulate people’s personal lives.

“Of course people can be friends with their colleagues and consensual relationships can develop at work – this isn’t about prying into private lives,” she said. “What we are talking about is the use and abuse of power.

“Those working for members of parliament should not have to navigate different party systems depending on their employer’s political affiliation.”

However, during the Q&A session after the speech, May swerved a question over whether she was aware of the complaints and of inappropriate behaviour in Westminster before last week.

“Obviously what has happened is over the last week a number of stories have appeared in the press,” she said. “A number of issues were raised with me that didn’t appear in the press. And, as you have seen, action has been taken.”

In his own speech to business leaders later at the same conference, Jeremy Corbyn said workplaces beyond parliament needed to examine if they had the right structures in place to support victims. “All of you need to look hard at yourselves, as we in the Labour party are doing ourselves, to see how your processes and procedures can be improved,” the Labour leader said. ”How it can be made easier for women to speak out and for victims to get the support they have a right to expect.”

Labour has suspended Hopkins and O’Mara over allegations of inappropriate behaviour, and the party is believed to be dealing with several other potential cases. It has also launched a formal investigation into claims that Lewis, the MP for Norwich South, squeezed a female activist’s bottom at the Labour conference.

On Sunday night, the Conservative MP Chris Pincher “voluntarily stood down” from the whips’ office and referred himself to the party’s complaints procedure and the police following an allegation about his behaviour.

Two other Tory MPs, Dan Poulter and Daniel Kawczynski, were referred to the party’s new internal party disciplinary system, it was announced on Sunday.

Crabb, the former pensions secretary, was referred on Saturday after admitting he had sent suggestive text messages to a teenager, while Elphicke has been suspended from the party and allegations against him have been reported to the police..



