Right so, news has broken this morning that Labour have suspended backbench MP Geraint Davies following reports of multiple incidents of inappropriate behaviour towards junior female colleagues, exclusively younger, one apparently just 19 at the time and for context Davies is 63. The thing is, we know Davies isn’t the only one so why single him out and not deal with others? I’ll come onto Labour’s further known issues presently. Now the accusations against Geraint Davies come from 5 separate women and in response he has said ‘I do not recognise the allegations, but if I have caused offence to anyone then I am naturally sorry.’ The if I have caused offence line, really isn’t the acceptable response you might think it is.
Sexual assault is one of the most underreported, poorly prosecuted crimes going in the UK and Labour are of course right to have taken this action here, but have they taken too long about it because apparently Davies’ behaviour is an open secret in parliament, oh that’s OK then! We all know so no harm done? What? Why has nobody reported it before then? He’s been an MP since 1997! One of the women involved claims Davies approached her in a parliamentary bar – only workplace in the UK where you can get pi**ed whilst on the job, ridiculous to me, but anyway, she’d had too much to drink, 22 years old as she was, was approached by Davies who was then 58, who kept buying her more drinks, suggested going back to his flat, took her number instead and went on to send sexually suggestive messages. Another woman, the 19 year old as she then was, was repeatedly approached at conferences, was repeatedly singled out by him, wanting private chats and an invitation to his hotel room. It left her feeling uncomfortable and under pressure. Two other women complained of repeated inappropriate touching, one of whom complained to the party whips about it, but did not raise it as an official complaint because she didn’t feel anything would get done. The fifth woman involved here was made to feel uncomfortable with repeated comments about her appearance, to the point she left her job as a parliamentary official, blaming the lack of support in parliament to those who work there due to the behaviour of MPs who can seemingly do as they please.
These women, absolutely should have been supported and if their allegations are proven true and I see no reason to doubt them, given Labour have finally acted here, they have my utmost solidarity. These accusations to my mind absolutely constitutes sexual harassment, these are multiple accusations of non-consensual contact. Ongoing unwelcome touching, repeated targeted contact verbal and non verbal, inappropriate comments by a much older man and one in a position of power, all ignored apparently for years given the open secret of his behaviour. Getting out given the lack of support is likely the best thing any of these women could do. Victims of this suffer depression, anxiety, PTSD, these are serious issues and such behaviour needs to be treated with the utmost seriousness, but as I said at the start, Davies isn’t the only one and as much as Labour are doing the right thing now, what about all the other accusations? Birmingham Perry Barr MP Khalid Mahmood was taken to tribunal for unfair dismissal after Elaina Cohen, a member of his staff blew the whistle on domestic violence against another staffer, who she was in a relationship with and also ignored antisemitic attacks against her as she happened to be Jewish. She took her complaints straight to Keir Starmer and David Evans, who repeatedly ignored her. She won her tribunal case over being wrongfully sacked by Mahmood, an MP who has treated the allegations against her with contempt by sacking her instead of addressing them. Starmer continues to pose with Mahmood in photos, hasn’t done anything about him and the findings against him and his office, Cohen is now on record as saying Starmer is unfit to run the country and she’s now planning to stand against Mahmood at the next election, after being turned down by the Labour NEC, by a Luke Akehurst led panel, specifically because she blew the whistle to protect other women. Fair play to her, I wish her well. The staffer in question at the centre of all of this? As far as I know, they still work for Mahmood. Starmer’s track record for dealing with sexual abuse and sexual assault is not good, it brings up the spectre of his review of the Jimmy Savile case, it brings up the reminder that as Director of Public Prosecutions he was on the sentencing council for child sexual assault, so the laws we uphold on such things he helped develop the sentencing for, crimes he accused Rishi Sunak of being soft on, yet he developed the punishments and you just end up with a picture of Starmer as someone who just doesn’t take this seriously and is perhaps throwing a backbencher known to behave in an allegedly lewd manner under the bus to show he’s not, but still there’s more and we know there’s more. Apsana Begum, the left wing MP for Poplar and Limehouse. Another domestic abuse victim, a survivor, she ended up in court accused by her ex husband of taking housing benefit she wasn’t entitled to, Starmer was hoping to expel her the minute she was found guilty, it didn’t happen, he didn’t even offer her a congratulations. Ater when she was standing to be the candidate for Labour again come the next election, her ex husband struck again, a Labour Councillor as he is, to see her triggered, the campaign of abuse saw her end up hospitalised. Her own party being the offending factor. She survived the trigger, Starmer has not once offered support or solidarity at any point, lefty as she is. Former Chester MP Chris Matheson threatened sexual violence against a junior staffer and was found guilty thereof in court. Labour hurriedly suspended him as an MP after the guilty verdict, but literally compare this to Geraint Davies here and now – Matheson was a Blairite and Starmer ally of course, Davies is less so. So again, it’s a one rule for some another for others, factionalism at play even when it comes to such as this. Matheson eventually resigning in disgrace, had nothing to do with Labour doing anything even after the guilty verdict to address his conduct. Just last week I covered the readmission of Starmerite MP Neil Coyle of course, a record of racism and sexual harassment there as well, so literally from one week to the next, we’ve seen Starmer flip flop even over sexual harassment. Worst of all though are the unnamed offenders, still thusfar unnamed it seems so as to protect their positions, because we know, thanks to a Daily Record article from April of last year, that 56 MPs in parliament are under investigation by the parliamentary watchdog, the Independent Complaints and Grievances Scheme, the ICGS and although the Record article does not name names, it does state that two of the complaints made relate to two Labour shadow cabinet ministers. In other words two of Starmer’s own frontbenchers have had allegations made against them and not once has he acted to remove any of his front bench in relation to any such offence. In other words we have to assume he is in fact protecting them. Geraint Davies might make Labour look tough on these crimes today and absolutely he should be dealt with appropriately, if found guilty of such actions he has no place being an MP, but neither it is clear to see are several others and of course those 56 MP’s alluded to likely come from all parties and they have a responsibility to deal appropriately with their people too and absolutely should, but the truth is as far as Starmer’s Labour is concerned, that this is all for show and carries no real intent when we’ve seen others readmitted to the party and the anonymity of still more being protected too. There may be an even more base explanation for why Davies is being singled out when there are so many others, a move that is so Keir Starmer that it can’t be ignored and that’s around boundary changes. Under the changes coming, Davies’ seat of Swansea West is getting abolished and the MP’s to be sharing the spoils of his patch would be Starmerites Carolyn Harris, Starmer’s former Personal Private Secretary and Tonia Antoniazzi, the Shadow Minister for Northern Ireland. A cynic might think getting rid of the non-loyallist, might be convenient. Read into that what you will. Anyway, the Neil Coyle story I went into more detail as I covered it last week as I said, so after you’ve liked, shared and subscribed to the channel, daily news and views that pulls apart those biased mainstream narratives and offers up the truth behind some of the headlines as I’ve done here, you can get the detail on Coyle, the man Starmer has just readmitted to the party, that apparently now counts as a high quality candidate even and I’ll catch you on the next vid, Cheers folks.