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A senior Labour MSP today reveals she was sexually assaulted by a senior male colleague at a party.

Monica Lennon has chosen to go public about the attack because she believes not enough is being done by Labour or other parties to support victims.

She is the third member of the party to cite a lack of support following the Bex Bailey and Ava Etemadzadeh cases last week.

Monica has claimed sexism is an ingrained problem in several levels of British politics.

She told how a Labour colleague, who had witnessed the assault at a party function, shocked her by saying: “That’s your fault for coming over here and getting him all excited.”

She also said that, having made an initial complaint to the Scottish Labour Party, she decided not to progress it because she felt she would not be believed.

Monica, 36, is the most senior UK politician to reveal she has been a victim of a sexual assault since the scandal engulfing politics began to emerge in the last fortnight.

(Image: Russell Hart/Alamy Live News) (Image: Internet Unknown)

Senior activist Bex Bailey told on Tuesday how she was raped in 2011 but had been advised against reporting it.

Another activist, Ava Etemadzadeh, has alleged Labour MP Kelvin Hopkins sent her a suggestive text message and made inappropriate physical contact while hugging her.

She made a complaint to the party about the 76-year-old in 2015 but he was promoted the following year to Jeremy Corbyn’s Shadow Cabinet.

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Monica said she had decided to give one interview about her ordeal to the Sunday Mail before drawing a line under the incident.

She said: “It happened at a Labour Party social event in 2013, before I was an MSP.

“It was a private function, a room full of people. A man, who was a senior figure in the party, touched me in a manner that some would say is ‘handsy’. He was sitting next to me when he groped me, in full view of other people.

“In the past few weeks, I have heard the word ‘handsy’ being used a lot but really this is just a euphemism for a sexual assault.

“I don’t want to go into the full details but he touched my body, in an intimate way, without invitation or permission. This shouldn’t happen to anyone.

(Image: flickr Editorial/Getty Images)

“It’s possible at least half a dozen people saw exactly what happened. One man, who at the time was a Labour politician, joked to everyone in earshot, ‘That’s your fault for coming over here and getting him all excited.’

“I had arrived in my party dress feeling a million dollars and now I felt humiliated. I know I wasn’t at fault for what happened but there were bystanders who clearly wanted me to feel responsible.

“I remember making my way to the bathroom so I could be alone.

“A few days later, I ran into another man who had seen what happened and he made a jokey reference to it. The underlying message was clear – the whole thing was to be treated as a joke.

“I felt disappointed, hurt, embarrassed and let down. But I didn’t want to show that and I didn’t want them to know that this had hurt me. The man who did it was older and had been in the party for decades. He was powerful, influential and well-respected.

“I confided in my family and closest friends but it did not cross my mind to go to the police.”

(Image: PA)

Monica was a 32-year-old South Lanarkshire councillor at the time of the assault and in the early stages of a career which would see her elected to Holyrood in 2016.

She is now the party’s spokeswoman on inequalities and is regarded as one of the parliament’s rising stars. She said one of the reasons she chose to speak out was to highlight sexism is rife in politics, not just at Westminster and Holyrood.

But she also believes that women are left unsure of what they should do in the wake of such an attack.

She said: “Some time later, I became further concerned about his behaviour.

“I phoned Scottish Labour. I was asked if I wanted to make an official written complaint. I just felt like that wasn’t really an option. I didn’t feel I would be believed.His friends were already framing me as a troublemaker. I continued to encounter the man who assaulted me through my political activities although I kept my distance.

“I got no sense that he in any way understood what he had done, the seriousness of it.

“But I am not scared of this person. I’m optimistic that there is now a willingness to lift the lid on the toxic culture that breeds this behaviour.

“We need to understand that there is a whole spectrum of sexism and sexual harassment. It can be verbal, it can be sexual assault, including rape; all of it is serious and has to be dealt with properly.”

(Image: Victoria Stewart/Sunday Mail)

The incident was eventually referred to the police by a witness who had seen it take place.

Monica was contacted by an officer several years later. But she was dissatisfied by aspects of the investigation and frustrated at the fact that a third party had reported it without telling her.

She feared the assault was being used by a political rival of the attacker to settle scores and criminal charges were not brought.

Monica said she had used the incident as a motivating factor for her campaigns on gender equality issues.

She has enjoyed high-profile success by highlighting the issue of period poverty and has campaigned on issues affecting young Scottish women.

She added: “What I experienced has taught me never to be sorry, never to apologise for speaking out on issues of gender equality. Every personal experience shapes your outlook and this has given me more motivation to be determined in speaking out on these issues.

“People, including some in the Scottish Labour Party, roll their eyes when feminism and equality issues are discussed. They need to ask themselves if they are living up to our core values.

“Politics was a male-dominated environment for so long and there can be a sense of entitlement which is quite pervasive.

“There has to be a change in culture now and, if that means the parties working together to achieve it, so be it. This is about everyone, not just politicians.”