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quick timeline recap on how Labour failed women and thus the constituents of Hartlepool (all alleged by Ms A in the pleaded case):
September 2017: Mike Hill MP offers a job to a woman from his constituency, and offers her housing help to move to London and take it up
September 2017: Mike Hill MP offers a job to a woman from his constituency, and offers her housing help to move to London and take it up
When she had then given notice on her job and flat in Hartlepool, he then falls her and tells her he loves her and wants them to share a bed:
She then moves to London and is living in his flat - he doesn’t give her a promised pay rise so she can afford a flat for her and her daughter. He then assaults her several times whilst sleeping:
Eventually after he harasses her for months and months, he makes her redundant in September 2018:
In 2019, she goes to the Labour Party to make a complaint, and also to the parliament’s Independent Complaints and Grievance Process (ICGS), and also with the police. Hill was suspended from the party.
She *then* asked the Labour Party to park her complaint until the ICGS investigation was complete, as she had ‘lost faith in the process’. Mike Hill was reinstated to Labour, and allowed to stand again in 2019, despite Labour knowing there was an active investigation into him:
It also allowed Mike Hill to brief the press that all charges had been dropped, misleading constituents and Labour members, and painting himself as the victim of a ‘very difficult time’ https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tees-50130414.amp">https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www...
Mike Hill then won Hartlepool and was reinstated as an MP in December 2019, but in Jan 2020 his application for anonymity in the employment tribunal that Ms A has bought against him was denied. (She is being supported by trade union representatives). Covid delayed the tribunal.
This employment tribunal is now going ahead on the 10th of this month. Still no word on exactly why Mike Hill decided to resign in mid March after over a year as an MP (possibly wasn’t enamoured with entering the job market in a pandemic).
Keir Starmer apparently told Mike Hill to quit some time ago - which begs the question, why was he not outright fired? Why was the whip not suspended? Why was he able to remain a Labour MP for a year under a Starmer leadership and then quit on his own terms?
Two days after Mike Hill’s resignation, the QC defending the claimant said the Labour Party had failed her client - there had been radio silence from them since the allegation was brought forward.
No care or compassion forthcoming from the party of workers!
No care or compassion forthcoming from the party of workers!
Obviously, we all know then what happened in Hartlepool. But the point is - there were so many failures of the internal Labour Party that led to the Tories gaining yet another seat.
1. Mike Hill should never have been the 2019 candidate. Someone else should’ve been selected and they would still be in post now, no by election, no defeat for Labour. That’s a failure of Corbyn and Formby’s Labour.
2. Keir Starmer pledged in his leadership campaign to tackle internal party culture. How was Mike Hill allowed to remain an MP for so long? No one should know better than the former DPP how unfit for purpose the current Labour complaints structures are, nor how slow a tribunal is
Starmer could’ve removed the whip from Hill in a show of defiance against sexual harassment in Labour (like he fired RLB to show a hard line on antisemitism). Why didn’t he?
We could’ve had a Labour candidate selected and been campaigning with a fresh face for a year.
We could’ve had a Labour candidate selected and been campaigning with a fresh face for a year.
Evans also could’ve suspended Hill from the party - like he did with Corbyn. Why didn’t he?
Why is it almost 4 years from MeToo and we still don’t have a proper independent system for sexual harassment complaints and accountability for people in power?
Why is it almost 4 years from MeToo and we still don’t have a proper independent system for sexual harassment complaints and accountability for people in power?
Why have neither LOTO nor Labour HQ reached out to offer counselling, care or pastoral support to the claimant? Still? Why does the party consistently fail women?
Finally - this woman was well known in Hartlepool, she moved down to London and was failed spectacularly by not only her boss and MP, but her party. Let’s not discount the ripple effect this has had on the local party or opinion of Labour.
TLDR? Labour has failed and is failing women, and maybe this time it’s actually cost us a parliamentary seat they will pay attention, but probably not!
Solidarity with Ms A, I’m sorry Labour has failed you and countless others.
Solidarity with Ms A, I’m sorry Labour has failed you and countless others.
Sources:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tees-56436341
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-e... href=" https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/politics/2020/jan/22/labour-mp-fails-in-bid-to-remain-anonymous-in-sexual-assault-case
https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp... href=" https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tees-56416603.amp
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-e... href=" https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tees-56416603.amp
https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www... href=" https://www.centreforwomensjustice.org.uk/new-blog-1/2020/11/25/ms-a-v-mike-hill-mp">https://www.centreforwomensjustice.org.uk/new-blog-...
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tees-56436341
also- (if you have made it this far) please QT with Trigger/ Content warnings for sexual assault rather than RT, I forgot to include them because I& #39;m an idiot
