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Jeremy Corbyn's chief whip challenged his decision to appoint a veteran Left-winger reprimanded for sexually inappropriate behaviour into his shadow cabinet, the Standard reveals today.

Dame Rosie Winterton questioned — with Mr Corbyn’s office — the appointment of Kelvin Hopkins after he was made shadow culture secretary in the summer of 2016, according to Labour sources.

The revelation plunged the Labour leader into a growing crisis over the Westminster sexual harassment scandal.

Mr Corbyn’s office was told by the Labour whips’ office in late 2015 or early 2016 that Mr Hopkins had been reprimanded for allegedly sending a sexually inappropriate text to a Labour activist.

However, the Luton North MP was brought into Mr Corbyn’s shadow cabinet in summer 2016 as he struggled to fill it amid a wave of resignations.

Dame Rosie, who is said to have been excluded from the reshuffle amid a row, is understood to have verbally flagged Mr Hopkins’ appointment with the Labour leader’s office, questioning whether it had been a good idea given past claims against him. She is not believed to have raised this formally.

Mr Hopkins remained in the shadow cabinet until last October. Mr Corbyn’s office is rumoured to have recently floated the idea of putting him on Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee. Today a Labour source claimed: “If you are a Corbyn believer you are allowed to do things that others can’t.”

A senior aide to Mr Corbyn strongly denied this and also that Mr Hopkins’ name had been mentioned as a possible member of the ISC. Mr Hopkins, 76, has had the whip withdrawn and been suspended as a Labour member.

Labour activist Ava Etemadzadeh, 27, is understood to have complained, through an MP, to the whips’ office following contact with Mr Hopkins about three years ago.

This is believed to have centred on a text message he allegedly sent her saying that a “nice young man would be lucky to have you as a girlfriend and lover... were I to be young.”

It is understood Mr Hopkins was then reprimanded by Dame Rosie. He is also accused by Ms Etemadzadeh of “rubbing his crotch” against her in 2014. Mr Hopkins could not be contacted for comment. Labour said it “takes all such complaints extremely seriously”.

Harriet Harman was today criticised by the Jewish Leadership Council, for repeating a “vile Holocaust joke” on BBC show This Week. She said she was telling it as an example of the “offensive” humour she has campaigned against.