Careless minister should have gone to police not press

IMPLICATIONS: Sir Chris Bryant

- Harvey Proctor

SIR CHRIS Bryant’s recent revelation that he was sexually assaulted by five male MPs is, if true, a deeply serious matter. He has my full sympathy. But what is indefensible is how he chose to share this allegation — not with the police, but in the press, timed with the release of his latest book.

The result? A sweeping cloud of suspicion cast over every male MP from that era, with no possibility of redress for the innocent. That is not bravery. It is irresponsibility dressed up as courage.

These kinds of insinuations are dramatic, unspecific and aired without accountability are unfair and dangerous. They corrode public trust and subvert the very principles of due process we claim to value. At a time when confidence in Parliament and politicians is already on a knife-edge, this kind of behaviour fans the flames of cynicism and distrust.

We've been here before and we have paid dearly for it. In 2012, Tom Watson, then an MP, stood in the House of Commons and declared under the protection of parliamentary privilege that there was a “powerful paedophile network” at the heart of Westminster and Number 10. He amplified the lies of Carl Beech, who in 2019 was convicted of fraud and paedophile offences.