A Labour MP shared a list of politicians reputed to be sex pests on a WhatsApp group, it emerged yesterday.
Charlotte Nichols, who represents Warrington North, posted the list of 20 names on a WhatsApp group understood to be used by other Labour MPs before deleting it, saying she had sent it by mistake.
Nichols, who was elected in 2019, has previously said that when she arrived in Westminster she was given a “whisper network list” of dozens of politicians to avoid.
Speaking in November, she said some MPs were notorious for their “bullying or sexual misconduct”, adding: “We all know and nothing is done and they continue to walk around and do their jobs — and there’s that kind of culture of impunity on it.”
While Nichols did not name anyone publicly, the list she circulated on WhatsApp included some politicians who had previously been accused of harassment and at least one prominent Conservative MP who has never been accused of wrongdoing, according to The Mail on Sunday.
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The newspaper quoted an anonymous Tory MP saying it was “grossly irresponsible” for Nichols to have posted the list and that she should instead report any evidence to the parliamentary authorities or the police.
Nichols said yesterday that she could not “legally make a third-party report” either to parliament’s independent complaints-grievances scheme or to the police. Writing on Twitter, she said: “Am I not meant to warn others about conduct I’ve seen, experienced or been told about that many times by different people that it’s a clear pattern of behaviour? I’m many things but a bystander isn’t one, and while Westminster is as grim as it is I won’t pretend otherwise.
She added: “What’s actually irresponsible is the lack of real action to sort out Westminster’s sexual harassment problem which is so endemic other MPs and staff have to be warned about some colleagues’ behaviour to keep them safe! Wish it wasn’t this way, but for now it is.”
Nichols’ comments will reinforce concerns about the culture at Westminster. In October, Labour MP Christian Matheson resigned after an independent investigation found he had tried to kiss a junior female worker he had invited on a “secret” trip. Matheson denied some of the allegations against him.
In July, Chris Pincher, then Boris Johnson’s deputy chief whip, had the Conservative whip suspended after allegations he groped men at a private members’ club. In April, fellow Tory David Warburton was suspended over allegations of sexual harassment, which he denied. Rob Roberts has not held the Conservative whip since May 2021 after he was suspended from parliament for six weeks for breaching parliament’s sexual misconduct policy.
