Tory MP Says She Has Experienced 'Around 50 Creepy Incidents' From Male Colleagues
A female MP has revealed she has experienced around 50 incidents of sexual harassment in parliament.
Caroline Nokes said women at Westminster tell each other which male MPs can be trusted and “who we think is a little bit creepy”.
The former Tory minister, who has been MP for Romsey and Southampton North since 2010, also took aim at the “laddish culture” which still exists in parliament, despite an increase in the number of women working there in recent years.
Asked on the BBC’s Newsnight how many “inappropriate, weird or creepy incidents” she has been subjected to, Nokes said: “Numerous. I wouldn’t be able to put a number on it, but definitely more than 20, probably in the region of 50.
″I can think of incidents where a member of the House of Lords in a restaurant said hello to me, walked past, turned round, came back and stroked my bare arm in the presence of a journalist.
“I can think of other incidents where a Labour MP patted me on the backside and told me that I’d done well to lose weight. Now, he in that incident looked about as shocked as I did, and clearly instantly regretted what he’d done.
“Other incidents where colleagues have put their hands on my thigh and told me at great length how their wives don’t understand them - just horrific.”
She said there were some male MPs she would not get into a lift with and added: “What I think is really telling is that female members of parliament will support each other, will provide information to each other as to who to trust, who not to trust, who we think is a little bit creepy.”
Nokes said that while the gender balance in parliament has improved in recent years, there is still “a laddish culture” that is not acceptable in a modern workplace.
How many inappropriate incidents would you say you’ve been subjected to?
— BBC Newsnight (@BBCNewsnight) July 6, 2023
“In the region of 50”
Caroline Nokes, Chair of the Women & Equalities Committee, tells @vicderbyshire she avoids some colleagues in the lift#Newsnight | https://t.co/P0zxS1DNGFpic.twitter.com/z1qnJN7Wot
Nokes’s comments came after Newsnight reported claims that a “predatory culture” still exists at Westminster.
Parliamentary aide Ellie Varley said she was asked to sit on a male MP’s lap and, even though she didn’t want to, had eventually done it “to get him off my case”.
A House of Commons spokesman said it took complaints “extremely seriously”.