Parliament must adopt a raft of new employment measures to ensure that MPs’ staff are no longer subject to an unacceptable risk of bullying and harassment at work, an official inquiry has concluded.
Former members of staff with grievances should be allowed to make historical complaints against members of parliament, according to a report by Gemma White QC.
She has concluded that employees of members of parliament are in a uniquely vulnerable position because they are directly employed and view any form of complaint as “career suicide”. They also often have strong party and personal loyalties that constitute significant barriers to complaint.
White said she received detailed contributions from individuals who described specific experiences of harassment from MPs, including a serious sexual assault.
One staff member described how senior MPs’ staff used parliament’s bars to meet young men and women “in the hopes that we will have sex with them to further our careers”.
“I would never in a million years dream of coming forward to lodge a formal complaint against any of the men who have touched or propositioned me because I actually want to have a career in parliament at the end of my internship.
“As things stand now, sexual harassment is just something young working-class people with no connections have to tolerate because networking in parliamentary bars is our only route to a permanent role.
“As long as getting political jobs in parliament [is] dependent on who you know and who you’re related to, sexual harassment will be a necessary evil for ambitious young … people like me who will choose our careers over our comfort every time,” the staff member said.
White wrote that unwelcome sexual advances from MPs were often accompanied by attempts at kissing and unwanted touching.
“For example breasts being grabbed, buttocks being slapped, thighs being stroked and crotches being pressed/rubbed against bodies.
“Most of these experiences were isolated, but some were part of a course of conduct on the part of a member or fellow member of staff,” she said.
To date, the people who would be most likely to bring a complaint under the new independent complaints and grievance scheme, namely former staff of MPs, have been denied the right to do so.
“This limitation must be removed so that they have the opportunity to hold MPs to account. They must also be permitted to complain about events which took place before June 2017 – the current cut-off date – as recommended by Dame Laura Cox,” the report said.
Despite a widespread problem identified by Cox last year, few MPs have sought help or retraining, the report discloses.
Only 34 out of 650 MPs and 135 out of 3,200 MPs’ staff have attended or signed up to the “valuing everyone” training, designed to support the new behaviour code introduced in July 2018, the report shows.
The report on Thursday calls for a fundamental shift away from regarding MPs as “650 small businesses” with near complete freedom regarding staff.
In a new development, the report calls for each member to be required to adopt and follow employment practices and procedures aligned with those followed in other public sector workplaces.
“This shift must be supported by a properly resourced and staffed department within the House of Commons. It should develop and implement a coherent and robust approach to members’ employment practice and provide support to members and their staff,” the report says.
Among the most common form of offending behaviour outlined in the report was of MPs who “shout at, demean, belittle and humiliate their staff on a regular basis, often in public”.
The report states: “The constant ‘drip, drip’, as more than one contributor put it, eats away at the employee’s self-confidence until they become anxious, exhausted and ill, incapable of performing their job and (often following a period of sick leave) resign or are dismissed.
“Well over half of the people who contributed to this inquiry described suffering significant mental and/or physical illness as a result of this type of bullying behaviour.”
Staff members who contributed to the report spoke of “being subject to unwanted sexual advances, often accompanied by touching, sometimes forceful”. The report said: “There is an unacceptable level of sexual ‘banter’ and unwelcome discussion of intimate sexual details.”
Contributors said bullying and harassment was from “large numbers of men and women of all ages and levels of seniority from across the political spectrum”.
One staff member told the investigation: “Working in the Houses of Parliament is meant to be an honour, but the actions of some MPs and staff members destroys any sense of pride. We are expendable staffers, with no independent HR service, and therefore no recourse.”
Downing Street described White’s report as “deeply worrying”.
The prime minister’s official spokesman said: “It is important that the parliamentary leadership now responds fully and promptly to the concerns raised in this deeply worrying report.”
Responding to the report, the House of Commons Commission, which is responsible for the administration of the lower house, said it will look urgently at White’s recommendations on Monday.
“The commission takes very seriously its responsibility to ensure that parliament is a modern workplace,” a spokesperson said.
Unions representing staff welcomed the report. Prospect deputy general secretary Garry Graham said: “It is up to MPs and House authorities now to have the courage to act and to change. MPs must step up and end the disgraceful closed-ranks culture that has allowed this abuse to fester for so long.”
