A former Sheffield MP has been found to have breached Parliament\u2019s sexual misconduct policy, after an employee complained of receiving inappropriate messages.<\/p>\n
Jared O\u2019Mara showed a \u201clack of remorse\u201d and a \u201crefusal to engage\u201d over the allegation, a committee of the Commons Independent Expert Panel said in a report published on Monday.<\/p>\n
Ex-employee Jennifer Barnes raised a formal complaint after saying she received inappropriate messages and approaches from the then MP in July 2019.<\/p>\n
Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards Kathryn Stone concluded that his behaviour breached the sexual misconduct policy and \u201camounted to an abuse of power\u201d, according to the report.<\/p>\n
Mr O\u2019Mara did not defend the seat of Sheffield Hallam in the last election, therefore limiting the panel\u2019s disciplinary options to removal of the right to hold a former member\u2019s pass to access Parliament.<\/p>\n
Panel chairman Sir Stephen Irwin advised that Mr O\u2019Mara was stripped of the right, a recommendation backed by Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle.<\/p>\n
Mr O\u2019Mara won the constituency for Labour from former Lib Dem leader Sir Nick Clegg in 2017, but later left the party during a series of controversies.<\/p>\n
The panel said Ms Barnes agreed to be identified in its report and has previously discussed her allegations with the media.<\/p>\n
After quitting her work for Mr O\u2019Mara, Ms Barnes was quoted by the BBC as saying: \u201cI am in tears and I am just like \u2018this is it, I can\u2019t go back now\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt almost makes me kind of shiver, being spoken to by someone who is 17 years older than me, he is my boss, he\u2019s an MP.\u201d<\/p>\n
From PA Media<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A former Sheffield MP has been found to have breached Parliament\u2019s sexual misconduct policy, after an employee complained of receiving inappropriate messages. Jared O\u2019Mara showed a \u201clack of remorse\u201d and a \u201crefusal to engage\u201d over the allegation, a committee of the Commons Independent Expert Panel said in a report published on Monday. Ex-employee Jennifer Barnes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":32607,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n