Senior Labour MP Geraint Davies has been suspended as a Labour MP over allegations broken this morning of sexual harassment against five women.
A Labour Party Spokesperson said: “These are incredibly serious allegations of completely unacceptable behaviour.”
“We strongly encourage anyone with a complaint to come forward to the Labour party’s investigation.”
Geraint Davies has been administratively suspended from the Labour Party pending an investigation into the allegations reported by Politico.
The administrative suspension of party membership also has the automatic effect of suspending the Labour Whip in the House of Commons, meaning he will now join the ranks of independent MPs.
When the allegations were put to Mr Davies by the Politico website, he told them: “I don’t recognise the allegations suggested and do not know who has made them.”
“None of them, as far as I know, has been lodged as complaints with the Labour Party or parliament.
“If I have inadvertently caused offence to anyone, then I am naturally sorry as it is important that we share an environment of mutual and equal respect for all.”
Five women have accused long-serving Labour MP Geraint Davies of inappropriate behaviour towards them during his career in the Commons.
The Politico website has reported the five women claim he subjected them to unwanted sexual attention – both physical and verbal.
One alleged incident involved Geraint Davies, then 58, approaching a drunk 22-year-old Labour Party aide in a parliamentary bar, buying her more alcohol and suggesting they could go back to his MP flat.
The MP took her number and subsequently sent a string of “sexually suggestive messages” alluding to masturbating on the Parliamentary estate.
Another Labour activist claims Mr Davies invited her to his hotel room when she was 19.
She said the invitation made her feel “uncomfortable and under pressure”.
Mr Davies has also been accused of touching two young female MPs without their consent, with one saying he pressed his leg against hers during a meeting and then began winking at her in the House of Commons chamber.
The other says he came up behind her during a late night vote in Parliament, put his hand on her waist from behind and said: “Glad we can go home now”.
The MP did not tell the party at the time, over a belief it wouldn’t result in any consequences, but did later tell the party’s whips.
A Labour insider insisted that they could not investigate the issue without a formal complaint about his behaviour, which has not yet been made.
A fifth woman, a former parliamentary official, said Mr Davies repeatedly commented on her appearance and the way she smelled.
She eventually left her job, saying there wasn’t enough support for parliamentary staff made to feel uncomfortable by MPs.
A Labour MP who has not experienced inappropriate behaviour from Mr Davies first hand told Politico: “He genuinely makes me feel uncomfortable. He gets in your personal space — it’s distasteful. You can see that other women feel uncomfortable around him.”
Mr Davies was elected in 1997 for Croydon Central, and again in Swansea West in 2010.
He has chaired a select committee, and is a member of the Council of Europe.
Speaking on Sky News this morning, Labour’s Shadow Immigration Minister Stephen Kinnock said the report “sounds awful” and said he would “urge the women who have been affected by this to come forward with formal complaints because if something untoward has taken place we need them to formally make that complaint so that the whole thing can be investigated”.
