Sexminster: Fear and loathing in Parliament as MPs prepare for fresh allegations Cahal Milmo, Nigel Morris and Richard Vaughan It was a measure of the twin tides of outrage and self-preservation sluicing […]

Cahal Milmo, Nigel Morris and Richard Vaughan

It was a measure of the twin tides of outrage and self-preservation sluicing through the Palace of Westminster this week that one Conservative MP felt moved to suggest that the dossier containing lurid allegations about the sex lives of 40 of his colleagues may well have been the work of the Kremlin.

Closer scrutiny of the spreadsheet, widely disseminated in its unredacted form on social media and openly published in America, would have established that if this was the sum total of Moscow’s “Kompromat” on Britain’s ruling party then Russia’s ruthlessly machiavellian intelligence services are slightly losing their touch.

“Inexcusable behaviour has been normalised. Parliament has institutionalised harassment and worse, and it’s deeply damaging.” The i politics newsletter cut through the noise Email address is invalid Email address is invalid Thank you for subscribing! Sorry, there was a problem with your subscription. Senior Labour MP

Arbiters of misconduct

Some 15 of the claims related to consensual relationships or sexual preferences unlikely to excite the arbiters of misconduct. At least two other sets of allegations were ferociously denied by the female researchers and assistants claimed to have been the victims of predatory politicians.

But, according to the testimony of many others spoken to by this newspaper in recent days, the MP spying the manipulative hand of Moscow was simply – and dangerously – missing the point.

A total of three MPs, including First Secretary of State Damian Green and former Labour frontbencher Kelvin Hopkins, are now under investigation over allegations of inappropriate conduct. Former defence secretary Sir Michael Fallon, who resigned on Wednesday after admitting his behaviour towards women had “fallen short” in the past, was yesterday forced to deny reports that he had stepped down because of lewd comments he once made to Cabinet colleague Andrea Leadsom.

Date-rape drug

Separately, a former Tory aide, Jo Tanner, has revealed how police told her that her belief that her drink had been spiked with a date-rape drug while she socialised in a bar in Parliament was not the first such complaint of that nature to be brought to their attention. At least a dozen other women, ranging from journalists to MPs’ assistants, have come forward in the last week with complaints that range from lewd text messages to one accusation of rape by a senior Labour Party official.

One senior Labour MP told i: “This is about a reckoning. The anger and panic we’ve heard this week is the mood music to time being called on a culture in this place that too many knew about and too few were willing to do anything about.

“Men across all parties – and they are almost without exception men – have exploited a dark space in the way Parliament functions to prey on women.

“The dossier is a compilation of gossip, and like all gossip some of it is true and some of it is rubbish. But the point here is that it speaks to a much wider truth – that inexcusable behaviour has been normalised. Parliament has institutionalised harassment and worse, and it’s deeply damaging.”

Bastion of male power

From the moment that the tempest of allegations concerning Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein first made landfall, its tail was always going to lash an institution such as Westminster with its long legacy as a bastion of male power (as recently as 1997 women made up only 10 per cent of MPs) and where the boundaries between social and professional interaction are obscure or indecipherable.

It is in these circumstances that what is understood to have been at least in part an effort by two former Conservative parliamentary assistants – one female and the other male – to coalesce a succession of rumours and allegations about MPs’ conduct into a spreadsheet (complete with such prudishly finger-wagging terminology as “fornication”) suddenly acquired the potency of an instrument to shake Parliament to its core.

While Downing Street yesterday sought to insist that Ms Leadsom, who has led ministers’ response to the so-called “Pestminster” scandal, had not demanded Sir Michael’s resignation, there remained deep trepidation among MPs about what more is to come, not least in this weekend’s Sunday papers.

Expenses scandal

One MP has warned colleagues via WhatsApp that the revelations could “bring down the Government”. There is near-unanimity in the corridors of power that the allegations have the potential to damage Westminster’s reputation as seriously as the expenses scandal.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, a cross-party pall has been cast over Parliament. The annual Parliamentarian of the Year awards hosted by the Spectator was a subdued affair on Wednesday night, not least because guest of honour Prime Minister Theresa May pulled out at the last moment to deal with the fall out of the resignation of her defence secretary.

When Liberal Democrat leader Sir Vince Cable risked a quip at the event about being an expert on spreadsheets “of the Philip Hammond variety, not the chief whip variety” he elicited little hilarity. For most guests, the issue was not a laughing matter.

Legal advice

Many MPs, including a number on the spreadsheet, feel anger that their reputation is being besmirched by an unsourced and uncorroborated document. Some, including Mr Green, are known to have sought legal advice from defamation lawyers.

One Tory who appears on the list of 40 MPs this week greeted a female reporter who is also a long-standing friend by saying: “I’m not sure whether I can kiss you on the cheek any more.”

Another backbencher on the list, displaying a degree of gallows humour, said: “I was completely blindsided by what I was supposed to have done. I only wish I had.”

Fresh accusations

But amid the trepidation, there is the uncomfortable sense that for every denial, there are fresh accusations waiting to surface.

A Labour staffer said: “It is not always on the Parliamentary estate; the worst stuff often happens at conference or at party events away from Westminster. I know of one MP who likes a drink and even after being warned about his behaviour towards a young activist, he was later found outside her hotel room having followed her there.”

One of the problems with the Conservative spreadsheet has been its lumping together of consensual affairs with disturbing allegations of serious misconduct – not the least of which are two claims of paying victims of inappropriate behaviour for their silence – and victims being deterred from coming forward as a result.

The Labour source added: “There are a couple of serial offenders on the Labour side and I’ve witnessed a handful of other incidents. But whether people come forward is another thing.”

Prurience

All of which leads to the most pressing question of all – just what is to be done to put the Houses of Parliament in behavioural order?

The time when a Cabinet minister’s preference for gay sex with partners wearing women’s perfume, as alleged in the spreadsheet, might be viewed as impacting on his ability to shoulder the burden of office has long passed into the sub-heading of prurient irrelevance.

But MPs operate in a singular world where most social and political gatherings are indistinguishable and they are effectively employers responsible for managing staff with whom they work long, unsociable hours. In this context, parties have had every reason to seek to keep out of the public domain any information which could cause them damage, not least when its disclosure could spark a by-election in an era of knife-edge parliamentary arithmetic.

Sleaze

Mrs May, who might have spotted an opportunity if she can quieten the storm of sleaze to recover some political power, yesterday released a new code of conduct for party representatives which includes a new complaints procedure to include for the first time an independent member.

But across the political divide, many MPs remain to be convinced that their parties have fully grasped the gravity of the situation.

One female Labour MP said: “The procedures they are talking about putting in place are still not robust enough. There has to be complete zero tolerance of this kind of behaviour.”