Suspended MP John Woodcock withdraws from ‘tainted’ Labour harassment probe

Liz Bates

Suspended MP John Woodcock has demanded an independent inquiry into claims of harassment made against him, dubbing the Labour process “tainted”.



A probe was launched by the party in April after allegations emerged that the Barrow-in-Furness MP had behaved inappropriately towards a female aide.

But Mr Woodcock has today written to Labour’s general secretary Jennie Formby claiming that he party leaked the claims to the media and demanding an independent process.

He wrote: “I am withdrawing my cooperation from your tainted disciplinary process and hereby requesting that you make arrangements to transfer the complaint made against me into the genuinely independent procedure being formulate by the parliamentary authorities, or to ask the President of the Law Society to appoint an appropriately qualified, independent arbiter to investigate it.

The backbencher said the party had deliberately passed details of the complaint to the press “as a pre-text” for suspending him and raised concerns about the appointment of a legal advisor to the case who “is apparently a member of banned hard-left entryist organisation, Militant”.

Mr Woodcock also accused Labour of failing to respond to a request for information, which he said left him with no choice but to threaten legal action.

He added: “I strongly deny the charges of sexual harassment formulated against me by Labour’s National Executive Committee but understand the submitted complaint should be thoroughly and fairly investigated.”

My letter to Labour’s general secretary asking complaint against me to be independently investigated. I’m withdrawing cooperation from the party’s tainted internal process pic.twitter.com/XID46nRczN — John Woodcock (@JWoodcockMP) June 24, 2018

Mr Woodcock is accused of sending a former staff member inappropriate texts and emails from 2014 to 2016.

A Labour Party spokesperson said: “The Labour Party takes all complaints of sexual harassment extremely seriously, which are fully investigated and any appropriate disciplinary action taken in line with Party rules and procedures.



“We are determined to challenging and overturning sexual harassment and misogyny within politics and the corridors of power, and across society as a whole.“