A cabinet minister today told how she was once pinned up against a wall by a male MP, as parliament faces fresh sexism claims.
Anne-Marie Trevelyan made the revelation after two female Tory MPs said they saw a male colleague watching porn on his phone in the commons.
The international trade secretary said there were “a few” male MPs who think that being elected “makes them God’s gift to women and suddenly they think they can please themselves”.
Trevelyan told LBC’s Nick Ferrari some of the sexism she had faced included: “A number of years ago being pinned up against a wall by a male MP who is now no longer in the house, I’m pleased to say, declaring that I must want him because he was a powerful man.
“These sorts of things, the power abuses that a very small minority, thank goodness, of male colleagues show is completely unacceptable.”
Trevelyan said all women in parliament had been subjected to “inappropriate language” and “wandering hands”.
The Tory MP for Berwick-upon-Tweed also told Sky News: ”I think all of us as women in parliament have been subjected to inappropriate language, to wandering hands - as my granny used to call it. It doesn’t change.
“The vast majority of the men I work with are delightful, they are committed parliamentarians, they’re passionate about the causes they fight, but there are a few for whom too much drink or indeed a sort of a view that somehow being elected makes them God’s gift to women that they can suddenly please themselves.”
She said that sort of behaviour was “never OK” and added: “Disrespect for women and indeed some of the younger women who are not parliamentarians who are part of our parliamentary family. That is never OK.
“It’s never OK anywhere. It’s not OK in Westminster either and we have had a number of ways to help women now share their anxiety, the experiences that they’ve had following on from the Me Too campaign a few years ago.
“We have now started to make frameworks that ensure that women can speak up but it’s still, I think, not as good as it could be.
“Fundamentally, if you’re a bloke, keep your hands in your pockets and behave as you would if you had your daughter in the room.”
- Anne-Marie Trevelyan
“Fundamentally, if you’re a bloke, keep your hands in your pockets and behave as you would if you had your daughter in the room.”
The Tory party’s chief whip Chris Heaton-Harris has called for the case to be referred to parliament’s Independent Complaints and Grievance Scheme (ICGS) which investigates allegations of harassment and sexual misconduct.
The disciplinary process could lead to a recommendation that the MP is suspended or forced out of the commons if a complaint is upheld.
Prime minister Boris Johnson said the allegations were “obviously unacceptable” while attorney general Suella Braverman said a minority of men in parliament behaved like “animals”.
It comes after separate claims that 56 MPs are currently facing sexual misconduct investigations, including three cabinet ministers and two shadow cabinet ministers.