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The hidden side of Pestminster
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| Contributor | IndyGeorgia |
| Last Edited | IndyGeorgia Jul 13, 2022 03:02pm |
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| Category | General |
| Author | Esther Webber |
| News Date | Tuesday, July 5, 2022 09:00:00 AM UTC0:0 |
| Description | LONDON — “I just had to shrug it off, essentially, and know that I would not speak to that MP again.”
George, a Conservative Party activist in his 20s, is recalling an encounter last year with a prominent Tory MP who had suggested meeting for a drink — and then “went on to make intimations of potential sexual attraction between us.”
While the encounter was not aggressive, George — not his real name — was left feeling “uncomfortable,” and believes that were he to positively interact with the MP again it would be interpreted as a green light for a sexual relationship.
His experience is part of a widely known but seldom discussed dynamic at Westminster, in which a small number of male gay MPs, peers and senior parliamentary managers wield an uncomfortable degree of power over younger male employees, often gay themselves.
The trend is rarely talked about, in part because to even raise such a sensitive issue risks playing into an age-old — and grossly offensive — homophobic stereotype that equates homosexuality with predatory behavior.
But the recent string of sexual misconduct allegations against MPs — several, such as those made against former deputy chief whip Chris Pincher last week, involving claims of sexual assault by men against men — have confirmed what some parliamentary staffers have long warned: that young women aren’t the only group in Westminster at risk of sexual harassment. |
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