Chris Bryant, a senior Labour MP who chairs the Commons standards committee, has claimed to have been repeatedly groped by male colleagues.
Content warning: This story includes topics that could make some readers feel uncomfortable and/or upset.
Writing in his new book, Code of Conduct, Why We Need to Fix Parliament – and How to Do It, the 61-year-old said “five male MPs have felt my bottom uninvited”.
“One of them, who was not out, did so repeatedly,” he wrote.
“Another, who is still in the House and still does not accept that he is gay, pushed me against a wall and felt my crotch.”
Detailing a separate incident, Bryant continued: “Another rubbed himself behind me in the queue to vote and was later snogging two men in the Strangers’ Bar. I know other gay MPs and staff who have faced the same.”
READ MORE: Chris Bryant MP: “I do feel less physically safe as a gay man than I did 30 years ago”
The book is not the first time the MP has referenced the incidents in question.
Speaking to LBC last year, he said: “I remember when I came out in 2001, I was regularly touched up by older, senior, gay – they weren’t out – MPs.
“I never felt I was able to report it because you end up being part of the story, and that’s the last thing you want.
“And I think a lot of women have been through that.”
READ MORE: Does the UK’s Labour Party still speak for LGBTQ+ people?
In Code of Conduct, Why We Need to Fix Parliament – and How to Do It, Bryant urges the public to accept MPs who are “good enough” rather than perfect.
In 2018, the Independent Complaints and Grievance Scheme (ICGS) was created in the wake of the Me Too movement as a way of dealing with complaints against MPs.
However, the pace at which it handles such investigations has been subject to intense scrutiny.
Code of Conduct, Why We Need to Fix Parliament – and How to Do It will be released on 17 August 2023.
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