2017 Westminster sexual scandals

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The Palace of Westminster, home of the UK Parliament, where the scandals arose Parliament at Sunset.JPG
The Palace of Westminster, home of the UK Parliament, where the scandals arose

A series of allegations concerning the involvement of British politicians in cases of sexual harassment and assault arose in October and November 2017. Allegations were prompted by discussions among junior staff employed in the UK Parliament at Westminster following the Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse allegations in Hollywood earlier in October, and the subsequent rise of the #MeToo movement. [1] [2] [3] but spread further to cover all the major political parties, including political figures beyond Westminster.

Sexual harassment includes a range of actions from mild transgressions to sexual abuse or sexual assault.

Sexual assault is an act in which a person intentionally sexually touches another person without that person's consent, or coerces or physically forces a person to engage in a sexual act against their will. It is a form of sexual violence which includes rape, groping, child sexual abuse or the torture of the person in a sexual manner.

Parliament of the United Kingdom Supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom

The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known internationally as the UK Parliament, British Parliament, or Westminster Parliament, and domestically simply as Parliament or Westminster, is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It alone possesses legislative supremacy and thereby ultimate power over all other political bodies in the UK and the overseas territories. Parliament is bicameral but has three parts, consisting of the Sovereign (Queen-in-Parliament), the House of Lords, and the House of Commons. The two houses meet in the Palace of Westminster in the City of Westminster, one of the inner boroughs of the capital city, London.

Contents

Prime Minister Theresa May wrote to the Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow asking for his assistance in establishing a "house-wide mediation service" supported by a "contractually binding grievance procedure" that would be available for all MPs. May also stated that current House of Commons required urgent reform as they lacked "teeth". [4]

Theresa May Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Theresa Mary May is a British politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2016 to 2019. May served as Home Secretary from 2010 to 2016 and has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Maidenhead since 1997. Ideologically, she identifies herself as a one-nation conservative.

Speaker of the House of Commons is a political leadership position found in countries that have a House of Commons, where the membership of the body elects a Speaker to lead its proceedings.

John Bercow Speaker of the House of Commons (UK)

John Simon Bercow is a British politician who has been the Speaker of the House of Commons since 2009. He concurrently serves as the Member of Parliament for Buckingham. Prior to his election to Speaker, he was a member of the Conservative Party.

A spreadsheet that alleged various sexual improprieties, mixed with consensual acts, by Conservative MPs was published in a redacted form by Guido Fawkes on 30 October 2017. [5] It detailed complaints against 36 individual MPs; the complaints were said to have been compiled by aides working for the parliamentarians concerned. [6] The BBC's political editor Laura Kuenssberg described the list as containing "both a mixture of unsavoury allegations, reports of well-known relationships, and some claims that are furiously denied. There is just no way of knowing frankly, how much of it is true". [7]

Guido Fawkes (website)

Guido Fawkes is a right-wing website published by British-Irish political blogger Paul Staines.

Laura Kuenssberg British journalist and BBC political editor

Laura Juliet Kuenssberg is a British journalist. In July 2015 she succeeded Nick Robinson as political editor of BBC News, the first woman to hold the position.

Conservative Party allegations

Michael Fallon British politician

Sir Michael Cathel Fallon is a British politician of the Conservative Party serving as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Sevenoaks since 1997, having previously served as the MP for Darlington from 1983 to 1992. From 2014 to 2017, he was Secretary of State for Defence and a member of the National Security Council. He was previously Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party (2010–2012), Minister of State for Business and Enterprise (2012–2014), Minister of State for Energy (2013–2014), and Minister of State for Portsmouth (2014).

Secretary of State for Defence United Kingdom government cabinet minister

Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for Defence is a senior official within Her Majesty's Government and head of the Ministry of Defence (MoD).

Julia Hartley-Brewer is an English broadcaster and newspaper columnist. She presented the weekday radio show from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm on talk radio station Talkradio from 21 March 2016 to 12 January 2018, and from 6:30 am to 10:00 am since 15 January.

Christopher Pincher British politician

Christopher John Pincher is a British Conservative Party politician who has served as the Minister of State for Europe and the Americas in the British Government since 25 July 2019. Prior to this, he served as the Deputy Chief Government Whip and has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Tamworth since 2010.

The Comptroller of the Household is an ancient position in the British royal household, nominally the second-ranking member of the Lord Steward's department after the Treasurer of the Household. The Comptroller was an ex officio member of the Board of Green Cloth, until that body was abolished in the reform of the local government licensing in 2004. In recent times, a senior government whip has invariably occupied the office. On state occasions the Comptroller carries a white staff of office, as often seen in portraits.

Tom Blenkinsop British politician

Thomas Francis Blenkinsop is a former British Labour Party politician and former Member of Parliament (MP) for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland. Blenkinsop did not stand in the 2017 general election.

Labour Party allegations

The Labour Party is a centre-left political party in the United Kingdom that has been described as an alliance of social democrats, democratic socialists and trade unionists. The party's platform emphasises greater state intervention, social justice and strengthening workers' rights.

The National Executive Committee (NEC) is the governing body of the UK Labour Party, setting the overall strategic direction of the party and policy development.

BBC Radio 4 British domestic radio station, owned and operated by the BBC

BBC Radio 4 is a radio station owned and operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is Gwyneth Williams, and the station is part of BBC Radio and the BBC Radio department. The station is broadcast from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasting House, London. On 21 January 2019 Williams announced she was quitting the role. There are no details of when or who will be her replacement.

Resulting actions

On 6 November 2017, a meeting took place between leaders of the political parties at Westminster. Theresa May proposed that a new system be set up for Westminster employees, with a hotline for abuse to be reported, and an independent grievance process. Liberal Democrat leader Vince Cable described the proposals as "the right first cross-party steps", and Green Party co-leader Caroline Lucas said that the meeting had been "broadly constructive and helpful" but that "we did not get into much of the detail". [36]

Political scandals beyond Westminster

Scotland

Wales

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The Me Too movement, with a large variety of local and international related names, is a movement against sexual harassment and sexual assault. The movement began to spread virally in October 2017 as a hashtag on social media in an attempt to demonstrate the widespread prevalence of sexual assault and harassment, especially in the workplace. It followed sexual-abuse allegations against Harvey Weinstein. Suggested by a friend, the phrase was later popularized by American actress Alyssa Milano on Twitter in 2017. Milano encouraged victims of sexual harassment to tweet about it and "give people a sense of the magnitude of the problem". A number of high-profile posts and responses from American celebrities Gwyneth Paltrow, Ashley Judd, Jennifer Lawrence, and Uma Thurman, among others, soon followed.

The Weinstein effect is a global trend in which people come forward to accuse famous or powerful men of sexual misconduct. A worldwide wave of allegations began in the United States in October 2017, when media outlets reported on sexual abuse allegations against film producer Harvey Weinstein. The allegations were described as a "tipping point" or "watershed moment" and precipitated a "national reckoning" against sexual harassment.

The 2017–18 United States political sexual scandals include multiple allegations of sexual misconduct, including sexual harassment and sexual assault, and subsequent firings and resignations of American politicians in 2017 and 2018. Some of these allegations are linked to the aftermath of the Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse allegations starting in October 2017.

The Me Too movement in India is a manifestation of the international Me Too movement that occurred in late 2018 in parts of Indian society including government, media, and the Bollywood film industry. In India, the Me Too movement is seen as either an independent outgrowth influenced by the international campaign against sexual harassment of women in the workplace, or an offshoot of the American "Me Too" social movement. Me Too began gaining prominence in India with the increasing popularity of the international movement, and later gathered sharp momentum in October 2018 in the entertainment industry of Bollywood, centered in Mumbai, when actress Tanushree Dutta accused Nana Patekar of sexual harassment. This led to many women in the news media, Indian films, and even within the government to speak out and bring allegations of sexual harassment against a number of perpetrators.

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