Lib Dem chief whip meets Hancock sex accuser
The Lib Dem Chief Whip Alistair Carmichael – who is also deputy chief whip of the coalition government – today met the woman who has been making allegations of sexual harassment against the Liberal Democrat MP for Portsmouth South, Mike Hancock.
The meeting – held this lunchtime at the north London office of the woman’s solicitor – lasted about hour. Mr Carmichael was given a thick file of papers to take away with him.
But the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is not optimistic that her complaints will come to anything. She was “deflated” by the experience, she tells me. “I felt ‘what’s the point?’.”
Unusual step
It was a highly unusual step for such a senior political figure to travel to hear allegations against one of their MPs, and there were elements of farce about the gathering. Mr Carmichael originally turned up at the wrong address. Then, at the end, the chief whip managed to leave without taking the file he had been given, and had to return to collect it. Both sides also decided to make audio recordings of the proceedings – partly for protection and partly for an accurate record of what was said.
Mr Carmichael told the woman and her solicitor that he would now read the documents they gave him, and then meet Mike Hancock to give him the chance to respond to the allegations. Before seeing Mr Hancock he also hopes early next month to interview one or two other individuals who may have evidence about the matter.
Lib Dem code of conduct
Mr Carmichael, who is a lawyer by profession, explained that he had to decide whether Mike Hancock had brought his party “into disrepute” under the Liberal Democrat code of conduct. If so, his most serious sanction would be to withdraw the whip from Hancock in the Commons. But Mr Carmichael knows he has no power to force Hancock to step down as an MP. And Mr Hancock himself shows no sign of doing so, despite undergoing serious heart surgery last year.
The woman originally made her allegations about Hancock in a letter to the Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg just before the 2010 election. She says her complaints were ignored at that time, though Mr Clegg’s office and Lib Dem HQ both say they have no record of receiving her letter. When the Renard controversy erupted at the end of February the woman wrote another letter of complaint, and Clegg assigned Alistair Carmichael to investigate. Mr Carmichael travelled to Portsmouth several weeks ago to conduct an initial interview with Mike Hancock and his lawyer.
“My investigation is continuing,” Alistair Carmichael told me tonight. “It will be a few weeks before it can be concluded. I will not make a decision until I have considered all the evidence and I will then make a recommendation to the leader and Deputy Leader.”
Mr Hancock vehemently denies doing anything improper.
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