Life is pretty good right now for Sir Keir Starmer: his authority is unchallenged, his shadow cabinet is serene and his party is leading by 35 points in the polls. But this morning has seen a (temporary) disruption to all that, following the news that one of his lesser-known backbenches will be quitting parliament after the sleaze watchdog said he should be suspended for ‘serious sexual misconduct.’
The independent panel on MPs’ conduct recommended Christian Matheson be suspended for four weeks following a report into his behaviour. Two allegations of sexual misconduct were upheld by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards against Matheson by a former member of his staff. The Commissioner wrote that Matheson invited the aide on a private trip abroad: to Gibraltar an invitation that ‘was sexually motivated, unwanted, and had placed the complainant under pressure and intimidated her’ according to the report. During a work event outside parliament, the MP for the City of Chester also:
linked arms with her; made personal comments about her appearance while looking at her suggestively; made her hold his hand as they left and insisted on accompanying her to her bus stop; and once there invited her back to his flat, kissed her twice on the forehead and attempted to kiss her on the mouth. The commissioner concluded that these were all unwanted and unwelcome sexual advances
Minutes after the report was published, Matheson released a statement saying that he would stand down as an MP:
Despite provable factual inaccuracies in the sanctions report, my appeal against sanction was not even considered, for the same reason. Therefore, I faced a suspension from the House of four weeks. Whilst I believe that this is an excessive and unfair penalty, I cannot challenge the process further. I believe that the honourable and right thing to do now is to resign my seat and seek to rebuild my life elsewhere.
A by-election now looms to choose Matheson’s replacement. Still, with the Tories currently on 14 per cent, it looks like Starmer won’t have to worry about whether he keeps the seat or not…
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