GROPING and serious sex assaults by MPs are among “necessary evils” their staff must endure, a bombshell report has revealed.

The probe into the “Pestminster” scandal first revealed by The Sun found young workers face “an unacceptable risk of bullying and harassment”.

1 The House of Commons has been hit by a bullying scandal Credit: PA:Press Association

The damning 55-page study by senior lawyer Gemma White QC found “unwanted touching” by politicians was widespread.

It involved “breasts being grabbed, buttocks being slapped, thighs being stroked and crotches being pressed/rubbed against bodies”.

Many victims feared losing their jobs if they complained.

And one staffer said of the relationship with an MP boss: “You do become their bitch.”

Ms White’s findings were based on interviews with 220 of the 3,200 employees of MPs in Parliament.

None of the MPs nor staff are named in the report and Ms White said she was unable to make an estimate of how many were bullies.

But she said the evidence she found was “sufficiently significant to demonstrate that bullying and harassment in MPs’ offices is widespread and cultural rather than concentrated in the conduct of a few wayward individuals”.

The hard-hitting independent investigation heard that some who work for MPs have had to endure “very serious sexual assault”.



'SERIOUS SEXUAL ASSAULT'

Other examples of the toxic culture in Parliament include MPs throwing objects at their employees in bouts of “uncontrollable rage”.

Staffers revealed their bosses would ply them with alcohol before making unwanted sexual advances. Employees told how “stressful and hostile” bullying by MPs had left them “crushed”.

One was asked to clean an MP’s flat ahead of a private party.

MPs also used their taxpayer-funded staff to look after their pets, wait for shopping to be delivered and mind their children.

Ms White said many of the ­staffers who had suffered did not contemplate making a complaint even under the new grievance

procedure set up in the wake of the Pestminster scandal, which broke in November 2017.

They feared doing so would be “career suicide,” she said.

One staffer said: “As long as getting political jobs in Parliament are dependent on who you know and who you’re related to, sexual harassment will be a necessary evil for ambitious young people like me who will choose our careers over our comfort every time.”

Training sessions on workplace conduct were introduced more than a year ago to help MPs learn how to treat their staff properly.

But the White report found that only 34 out of the 650 MPs had attended one of them.

The scale of the abuse uncovered by yesterday’s report has led to PM Theresa May granting MPs a vote next week on a shake-up of the rules governing the complaints procedure. Her spokesman said: “The findings in this report are appalling and raise serious concerns.”

He added: “There can be no place for bullying or abuse in Westminster or any workplace. It is important that the Parliamentary leadership now responds fully and promptly to the concerns raised in this deeply worrying report.”

Commons Leader Mel Stride commented: “Any one person — and I say this as a father of three daughters — who is put into a ­position where they are preyed upon by somebody in authority, that is one way too many. And that needs to be stamped out.”

Chief Secretary to the Treasury Liz Truss warned it was hypocritical of MPs to “go around lecturing other employers how they deal with sexism, how they deal with representation and bullying and not to get our own house in order”.

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Tory MP Jack Lopresti yesterday became the first MP to publicly apologise to a former employee in the wake of the damning report.

Jo Kinsey quit as his office ­manager more than two years ago due to his “volatile” behaviour.

Mr Lopresti denied wrongdoing but sent her a two-line apology.

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