Lord Rennard quizzed by police over sexual harassment

Bridget Harris is not someone who enjoys the media spotlight, when I first met her she’d only recently stopped working as one of the deputy prime minister’s special advisers – a job where invisibility is part of the job description.

But she was one of three women who had the courage to talk to Channel 4 News about allegations of inappropriate behaviour by the Lib Dem peer Lord Rennard.

Their decision to speak out directly led to the police questioning him under caution, meaning his taped evidence could be used against him in a future criminal court case.

As that news broke I went back for an exclusive interview Ms Harris for tonight’s Channel 4 News. She was initially a little reluctant to speak. She’s a busy working mum, and, like many women, doesn’t enjoy ‘performing’ for the camera.

But she needn’t have worried, as she had plenty to say, and is passionate about using her experiences to help other women getting a raw deal in Westminster and beyond.

I think is riven with quite a lot of severe weaknesses and problems and it is not necessarily an open and transparent system, so abuse of power is more likely to occur Bridget Harris

She’s pleased the police have thoroughly investigated her claims. “I’m not surprised that the police have taken these allegations very very seriously and I’m sure that the process will carry on in a proper and formal way. But what’s most important is that the women’s allegations…are going to be heard and tested thoroughly,” she stated.

And that’s the crucial point about this reluctant witness, she, like the other women we spoke to, want to empower others to complain about inappropriate behaviour, and ensure their political paymasters to take those complaints seriously.

When Lord Rennard allegedly repeatedly touched her legs during a coffee at a party conference in 2003, she immediately reported him to her line manager. But although senior MPs and peers knew of concerns about Lord Rennard’s behaviour, they failed to take decisive action.

And when I spoke to her she’s clear that the Lib Dems and other political parties haven’t done enough since the Rennard scandal broke to ensure that allegations of this sort are handled properly in future.

She says: “My experience is the Westminster political system I think is riven with quite a lot of severe weaknesses and problems and it is not necessarily an open and transparent system, so abuse of power is more likely to occur.”

There’s something about Westminster, she suggests, which, when it comes to gender equality, has allowed political parties to exist in some kind of time warp.

“Everything has been bound up in a bubble in Westminster while the rest of the country is dealing with more complex issues, including sexism, and is more flexible to change. Westminster seems to atrophy in its own culture, so I think sexism is a problem,” she says.

Since I broke the Rennard story, some very old-fashioned attitudes to sexual harassment have been on display in the upper echelons of the Lib Dems.

Baroness Williams, one of the party’s peers, said the claims had been “hopelessly exaggerated”, and her colleague Lord Greaves described Lord Rennard’s behaviour as “fairly mild sexual advances”.

Read: Lid Dem 'failure' over Rennard harassment claims

Ms Harris is clearly furious that, although the vast majority have been hugely supportive of her since she spoke out, some have tried to play down her allegations.

“It’s quite possible that we still have a generation of people who have inherited old-fashioned ideas about how to behave towards women and what’s acceptable,” she says.

“You can’t have mild racism or mild homophobia or mild bigotry. Inequality and discrimination and harassment are all seen in the eyes of the law as wrong and can lead to prosecutions.”

I suggest to her that she’s brave not only to take on her own party but also to reveal intimate and embarrassing details about an incident a decade ago.

She instantly dismisses the idea. “I don’t know why it’s brave for me because I’m a perfectly robust, normal professional person with nothing collectively to lose. I did have something to lose ten years ago if I made a really big fuss and that’s the point.”

Some have accused Ms Harris and the other women I interviewed of engaging in a kind of “moral crusade”. All I can say is that this is not a crusade Ms Harris ever asked to lead, nor is she the prim-faced puritan her critics would portray her as. Instead this is a woman determined that others entering politics as she did all those years ago don’t have to endure the harassment she says she did.

Rennard response

His solicitors said in a statement: “We can confirm that Lord Rennard agreed to meet with the police and that he welcomed his first opportunity to refute the basis of allegations made against him.”

“We do not intend to make any further statement until the conclusion of the police inquiry”.