Emily Caulkett-
A female Cabinet minister has said she was once “pinned up against a wall” by a male MP as she told colleagues to “keep your hands in your pockets” amid renewed accusations of misogyny and sexual misconduct in Parliament.
International Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan told LBC Radio: “I’ve witnessed and been at the sharp end of misogyny from some colleagues many times over.
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She said some men in Westminster thought being elected made them “God’s gift to women”, although the vast majority were “delightful, committed parliamentarians”
In response to a question about the broader culture in Westminster, Trevelyan said: “All of us as women in parliament have been subjected to inappropriate language, to wandering hands, as my granny used to call it, it doesn’t change. The vast majority of the men I work with are delightful. They’re committed parliamentarians, they’re passionate about the causes they fight.
“But there are a few for whom too much drink, or indeed a sort of view that somehow being elected makes them God’s gift to women, that they can suddenly please themselves, that is never OK.”
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She said there were a number of ways to help women report their experiences, which had been set up in the wake of the MeToo movement. “Fundamentally, if you’re a bloke, keep your hands in your pockets and behave as you would if you had your daughter in the room,” she said.
Trevelyan said she was comfortable “calling out anybody who thinks their wandering hands are OK” and that she had done a number of times. She questioned why the Tory MP accused of watching porn in the Commons had the time to do it, as well as why he thought it was acceptable.
“We might describe it as wandering hands, if you like, we might describe it as, you know, a number of years ago being pinned up against a wall by a male MP who is now no longer in the House, I’m pleased to say, declaring that I must want him because he was a powerful man.
“These sorts of things, these power abuses, that a very small minority, thank goodness, of male colleagues show is completely unacceptable”.
Ms Trevelyan added she had been subjected to “wandering hands” by “half a dozen” men in Westminster, some of whom were “repeat offenders”.
The Trade Secretary told male colleagues to “keep your hands in your pockets and behave as you would if you had your daughter in the room”.
She said the vast majority of her male colleagues are “delightful” and “committed parliamentarians”.
Ms Trevelyan added: “But there are a few for whom too much drink, or indeed a sort of, a view that somehow being elected makes them, you know, God’s gift to women, that they can suddenly please themselves, that is never OK, that kind of behaviour, disrespect for women.”
She dismissed calls for a ban on alcohol in Parliament, saying: “There’s nothing wrong with having having a drink with your colleagues.
“Responsible drinking has to be the way forwards, and we continue to try and improve that”.
The shadow chief secretary to the treasury Pat McFadden said the “overall effect” of inappropriate behaviour in the Commons is “corrosive” to faith in politics.
The Labour MP told Times Radio: “That’s a bad thing for the country because this is still the arena where we have to decide the big challenges facing the country.”
The news comes amid growing pressure for Boris Johnson to remove the whip from a Tory MP accused of watching pornography in the Commons chamber and as a growing chorus of senior ministers hit out at Westminster’s “shameful” culture.
Ms Trevelyan described the claims as “completely unacceptable”, but declined to say whether the unnamed Conservative MP should be sacked and denied that her party specifically has a misogyny problem.
“I haven’t had the chance to talk to the chief whip, and I know the ladies in question who apparently saw this completely, completely inappropriate activity have been encouraged to use the formal system in the House of Commons to be able to report it, and I hope very much that they will or indeed have, I don’t know, and that the system will demonstrate if that was the case, exactly what the punishment should be for that sort of inappropriate behaviour.”
She also said she is confident that chief whip Chris Heaton-Harris will “take a decision that’s appropriate”.
The charge levelled against the unnamed Tory is set to be examined under Parliament’s Independent Complaints and Grievance Scheme (ICGS), which investigates allegations of harassment and sexual misconduct.
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