Tag: Kelvin Hopkins

A Labour activist who has waited almost 16 months for her complaint of sexual harassment against an MP to be resolved has called on the party’s deputy leader, Tom Watson, to take charge of more abuse complaints. In a letter to the deputy leader, shared with the Guardian, she said Watson should take charge of monitoring the process in the same way he has pledged to with complaints about antisemitism and bullying. “I, like many survivors of sexual harassment and assault, would like you to take the same measures to deal with allegations of sexual misconduct within the Labour party,” Etemadzadeh wrote to Watson. Etemadzadeh, who first made her complaint about Hopkins in November 2017, is scheduled to have it heard by the party’s highest disciplinary body in late April but said she had lost faith in the process. She has previously accused Hopkins of sending her a text saying young men would be “lucky to have you as a girlfriend and a lover” and has accused him of rubbing his crotch against her during an embrace at an event in 2014. Hopkins has said he “absolutely and categorically” denies any inappropriate conduct. Etemadzadeh said the handling of her case “shares many of the same flaws as its handling of allegations of antisemitism” and particularly criticised the makeup of the elected disciplinary body, the national constitutional committee, which she said was elected according to “factional politics”. Etemadzadeh said she had found herself in the position similar to those who had made complaints about antisemitism. “It is complainants, rather than perpetrators, who are accused of exercising a malign power and bringing the party into disrepute,” she said. Etemadzadeh also asked Watson to advocate for the release of a June 2018 report by Karon Monaghan QC on reforming the party’s complaints procedure, which she said she had contributed to but had not been allowed to read.