Labour backbencher John Mann promises to name and shame a ‘sex pest’ politician in his party
A SENIOR Labour MP has vowed to name and shame a fellow comrade as a sex pest.
In an electrifying Commons intervention John Mann hinted a Labour MP had been booted off a foreign trip for bad behaviour towards females.
But the respected backbencher suggested the incident may have been hushed up, as abuse allegations swept Westminster in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal.
Mr Mann, who has a history of campaigning against wrongdoing, used a parliamentary Point of Order to question if MPs had been kept in the dark about an incident believed to have taken place during an official trip.
Separately Mr Mann tweeted: “I will be naming a Labour MP who behaved appalling towards a young woman”.
He added: “Why was her complaint ignored before?”
A second Labour MP named the suspect to The Sun and said he had been “extremely disruptive” during a continental junket.
They said “he thinks he’s the disco king” amid claims the member groped a woman — prompting complaints about his behaviour.
MPs from all parties are elected by colleagues to represent the UK on international bodies like NATO and the Council of Europe.
The name of the alleged culprit is widely known by fellow MPs who regularly take part in the taxpayer funded trips.
Speaker John Bercow moved to silence discussion of the matter in the House of Commons, urging Mr Mann to instead privately write to him with any complaint.
MPs have the chance each day to quiz the Commons boss on a variety of matters known as Points of Order.
Speaking on Wednesday, Mr Mann used the trick to say: “Where an MP is elected by Parliament to represent us on a foreign delegation and is subsequently sent home from that delegation for inappropriate behaviour, will such cases always be reported back to the body that elected them—that is, to Parliament—and have they been in the past?”
Mr Bercow said that while he did “not consider or treat” abuse “lightly”, he could not comment on the “hypothetical” allegation.
But he added: “I would certainly expect that if a suspected abuse had taken place, that would be reported, in all likelihood, to the political party of which the suspect was a member.”
Westminster insiders said the party chiefs are braced for up to half a dozen serious sleaze cases to emerge in the coming weeks and months.
A Labour source said: “It won’t be quite as many as the expenses crisis but there will definitely be resignations and by-elections if the dam breaks.”
Last night a Labour spokesman said: “The Parliamentary Labour Party has robust processes in place to deal with complaints.”
