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MP tells of sex pest in the cloakroom as Tory defends his bottom slap
Paul Waugh, Deputy Political Editor06.11.09
Fresh “sexism in the Commons” allegations emerged today as a woman Tory MP revealed that a Labour backbencher had propositioned her.
Nadine Dorries said the Scottish MP had “disgusted” her with his sexual harassment in the MPs' cloakroom.
Ms Dorries, who put her revelations on social networking website Twitter, spoke out less than 24 hours after Conservative grandee Sir Nicholas Winterton was accused of slapping the bottom of Labour MP Natascha Engel.
She tweeted: “A Scottish Labour MP ... walked up to me in the cloakroom and said: You were in my dreams all night. Would you like to know what you were doing?'
“I refused. He walked out of the room with me and insisted from 2 paces behind in telling me, disgusting me.”
Ms Dorries claims she has received sexually explicit text messages from another Labour MP. She told the Evening Standard that because the man has two children she will refuse to name him. “The things that Labour MPs have said to me are truly disgusting,” she said.
Today Sir Nicholas, 71, defended his “friendly” approach to women. He and Ms Engel, 42, were queuing for food in the Commons Tea Room when fellow MPs heard her shriek: “I can't believe it. Sir Nicholas has just slapped my bottom!” Labour MP Kerry McCarthy tweeted about his “shocking behaviour” last night.
Asked if he often slapped bottoms, Sir Nicholas, who is married to fellow MP Anne Winterton, said: “I don't make a habit of it. You might do it now and again if you felt so disposed, if you had a sensible, friendly relationship with an individual. Can I remember this incident? No. Can I categorically deny it? No.”
He said any such gesture would have been out of “affection and regard”. Ms Engel said: “This is very embarrassing. I would rather not be slapped on the backside. But he is an old man. It is not the end of the world.”
The woman at the centre of a Conservative selection row today apologised for a “miscommunication” over her affair with a Tory MP. Liz Truss, a married high-flier backed by David Cameron for South West Norfolk, was attacked for failing to tell her local party of her relationship with Mark Field.
Reader views (21)
I don't know about you dear readers but haven't we been seeing rather a lot of this lady recently. Whatever happened I would have thought that with her expenses record she may consider lying low and keeping a lower profile for a while. Just thought I'd mention it.
- Steve, Brentford
Liberal and proud, to answer your astoundment;
YEP!
But the point, if you weren`t TOO proud to read the post was this; If the man had groped the woman`s bottom, people like you would probably be posting in complaining about it.
And although the programme is set firmly in the future, it`s production values are well and truly based on 2009 PC BBC Liberal bias, i.e. some genders (?) are light years more equal than others!
- Darius, London UK
Time to get rid of these overpaid senile old fools. Let’s hope someone in the Conservative Party has the sense to tell him it's time to stand down. However most of them are probably like him.
- Mick, London, England
"that's possibly the grimmest and most depressing thing I've heard all day" says Liberal and Proud. It's obviously a generation thing because our generation just got on with it, and anything that life threw at us, and sorted things out ourselves - we didn't go running to Mummy or the establishment to help us out or claim compensation. I suggest you get some backbone.
- Sue, Orpington, Kent
Does anything useful happen in Parliament anymore? Or is it just one big job-creation scheme for party activists?
- Bloke, Lambeth
Is obviously living in the correct century when other men take his behaviour as assent and join in slapping his botty, well that'll be modern day politics for you.
- Bill, Hay~Heath UK
He is, amongst other things, old enough to be her father, old enough to know better, and too old to know what is acceptable behaviour in modern society. Yes, it's a fairly minor incident, yes, it's deeply stupid behaviour but lets be honest here...he's a 71 year old Tory grandee, what do you really expect? Sense?
- Richard, London UK
Many moons ago I had a boss who was prone to doing the same thing. I slapped him back but the old perv obviously enjoyed that even more. The next time I punched him hard in the stomach. He slid down the wall groaning, but he didn't do it again.
- Sarah Bradshaw, Enfield, Middx
Dirty old man!
- Anthony, Esher, Surrey
Unbelievable!
Darius - are you seriously basing an anti-pc rant on the plot line of a fictional tv show set 50 years into the future in space?
And Frederick - there's a bit of a difference between two consenting adults having relations and an unsolicited grope.
Sue, orpington - that's possibly the grimmest and most depressing thing I've heard all day.
- Liberal And Proud, London, UK
Dirty old man!
Many men have found themselves in court for doing this. He's a lucky man, this time!
- Susie, London
It is a shame Mr Winterton is still living in the wrong century. He should apologise.
- Alice Jones, London, England
Sue, sounds like you taught him a lesson alright. I'm not sure that would work here though - most male MP's would pay for that sort of treatment.
- Kevin T, Beckenham, Kent
All this fuss about the interaction of the sexes. He didn't stick his hand up her skirt or down her blouse. Remember Prescott's little fling in the House.
- Frederick, London
Well done Sir Nick! I my view the whole of Nu Liebour needs a good slapping; just higher up and much harder.
- John Bull, London
Interesting to note on the Mega PC BBC`s wonderfully awful series "Defying Gravity" (about emotional tangles that just so happen to be set in space) the chiselled modelesque amourous female astronauts are on occasion seen slapping and squeezing the bloke`s backsides - never be allowed the other way round, though!
If so, the girls onboard would probably demand the mission were aborted and the spaceship turned around so they can sue the perpertrator back on Earth, I guess!
- Darius, London UK
I have to say, if Sir Nick went anywhere near my bum I'd be horrified and just a little bit outraged but Ms Engel is right it's hardly the crime of the century and she seems to have taken a mature and reasonable approach to the situation. Ms McCarthy, on the other hand, sounds like the worst type of woman - telling school ground style tales on Soames for stuffing some ham in his mouth without using tongs to pick it up is just so petty it's unreal. Hasn't she got better things to talk to the press about?
- B Lane, London
I feel sick. He has a face like the back of a bus and a head like a turnip. Yuk.
- Mj, East Anglia
Oh dear how awful! I used to deal with all sorts of sexual inuendos or gropers in the office (before the PC brigade took all the fun out of going to work), so I gave as good as I got, either verbally or giving them a slap whichever was appropriate. One guy used to go round putting his hands on womens breasts - we got our own back at a Christmas party by stripping him naked, tying his hands behind his back, we left him on the floor with a piece of holly stuck up a particular part of his anatomy, and locked the office door which happened to be an adjoining door to the HR Manager's office. He never did it again! Today no doubt the woman would sue.
- Sue, Orpington, Kent
Fellow MPs heard her shriek: “I can't believe it. Sir Nicholas has just slapped my bottom!”
I can believe it - they're the pigs we know best as the Tory party, after all.
- Nowan, London
Ms Engel should consider herself lucky that someone has paid attention to her;there are many women who crave affection and would have been over the moon to get a tap on the bum from Sir Nicholas. Chivalry is not dead.
- Alexis Dogilewski, London England
