MPs must not hide behind excuses about long hours and work pressure as an explanation for misogyny and misbehaviour in Westminster, Keir Starmer has said.
His comments came as cabinet minister Kwasi Kwarteng insisted that parliament was a safe place for women to work, saying that problems were limited to a few “bad apples” who cross the line in what is a “really intense” workplace.
The Labour leader welcomed the resignation of Tory MP Neil Parish, who quit on Saturday after being spotted watching pornography on his phone in the Commons chamber.
But he said that parliament needed a “culture change… led from and modelled from the top.”
Sir Keir was speaking amid fresh allegations of misbehaviour in the Commons, with reports of incidents such as MPs licking researchers’ faces. More than 50 MPs are said to be under investigation by parliament’s complaints procedure over sexual harassment.
The Labour leader told Sky News’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday: “There’s a cultural issue we have to get to grips with and culture change has to be led from and modelled from the top.”
The government had shown repeatedly that, when a Tory colleague gets into trouble, ministers’ “first instinct is to push it off into the long grass, hide what’s happening,” said Sir Keir.
And he added: “That’s a political problem because the fish rots from the head…
“I’ve dealt with cultural change before – I had to do this within the Crown Prosecution Service. I learned that it has to be led from a model from the top.
“You look to the political leadership, see what approach they’re taking. And without that, I think it’s very difficult to bring about change.”
Mr Kwarteng denied there was a general culture of sexism in Westminster, but said that the pressures of the job drove some MPs to step over the line.
“I don’t think there’s a culture of misogyny,” Mr Kwarteng told Sophy Ridge.
“I think the problem we have is that people are working in a really intense environment. There are long hours. I think, generally, most people know their limits. They know how to act respectfully, but there are some instances where people don’t frankly act according to the highest standards.”
But Sir Keir said that this view was challenged by female MPs with whom he had discussed the issue over the past few days.
“We can’t run this argument about this `high pressure culture’,” he said. “Take responsibility.
“Neil Parish chose to watch porn in parliament. Tory MPs chose to make disparaging comments about Angela Rayner. They’ve got to take responsibility.”
Mr Kwarteng insisted that parliament is a safe place for women to work despite a few “bad apples”.
He told the BBC’s Sunday Morning show: “I think it is. I think we’ve got to distinguish between some bad apples, people who behave badly, and the general environment.
“There are some bad apples, there are people who have acted very badly, and they should be held to account.”
He said it would be “excessively puritanical” to shut down parliament’s bars in the hope of ending sexual misconduct and sleaze.
The business secretary told Ridge: “No, they shouldn’t all be shut, I don’t think we should have an excessively puritanical severe regime in that regard.”
Mr Kwarteng also did not back all-women shortlists for parliamentary candidates, saying: “I’ve never been a fan of quotas but I think we should do all we can to encourage more women to come into politics and from diverse backgrounds.”
He said that the complaints system set up in 2018 following the Pestminster scandal “needs time to really get going”, but said it was clear that currently it ”isn’t working sufficiently well”.
