MP at centre of new Westminster “sex pest” row after naming 20 colleagues on sexual harassment list

WARRINGTON North MP Charlotte Nichols took centre stage in a new Westminster ‘sex pest’ row last night after naming 20 colleagues in an alleged ‘sexual harassment list’.

The list was meant to be for a new colleague but was accidentally sent to a What’s App group of fellow MPs elected in 2019.

While saying she stands by every name on the cross-party list, she said it had been sent “without context and with no specific allegations”.
The MP for Warrington North also said she had “first-hand experience of their behaviour”.

She has since deleted the post as it had been sent to a particular WhatsApp group by mistake.
While according to a national newspaper report some have described her actions as irresponsible, Ms Nichols said: “What’s irresponsible is the lack of real action to sort out Westminster’s sexual harassment problem, which is so endemic other MPs have to be warned about colleagues’ behaviour.”

When asked if the “sex pests” should be named and shamed she said: “Yes but you can’t make a third party report to the police or Independent Complaints and Grievance Scheme (ICGS). So unless the victim makes it and there are many reasons they don’t – including those found guilty through the ICGS, the sanction has typically been a suspension of only a few days, while the case can take up to two years to go through – what’s everyone else meant to do in the meantime?
“I had intended to send it to a new colleague not the group, but at the end of the day, the people on the list are the issue, not me!”
She added: “It’s not about any given list or who wrote what. It’s about the fact there are so many badly behaved MPs that people have to be warned about them for their own safety. Why that is still tolerated and why they are still in post when this is the case.”

Last year, Ms Nichols claimed she had been a victim of sexual misconduct at least a dozen times since entering Parliament. While stopping short of naming the alleged culprits she said they were from different parties and some were senior.
In November Ms Nichols also told BBC Radio 5 Live that ‘when I first came into Parliament a group of people I knew gave me a list of MPs… whom I should try to avoid as far as possible to keep myself safe’.