Sexual Harassment Claims Surface in U.K. Parliament<br />30, 2017<br />LONDON — To the British lawmaker it was just "good-humored high jinks." But after admitting<br />that he had asked a female member of his staff to buy sex toys, Mark Garnier was at the center of a formal investigation on Monday amid a litany of accusations of sexual harassment, inappropriate behavior and casual sexism in Parliament.<br />I’m sorry and apologise unreservedly In addition to announcing an inquiry by the Cabinet Office into Mr. Garnier’s actions, Mrs. May has<br />written to the speaker of the Commons, John Bercow, to seek better ways for lawmakers’ staff members to raise concerns about their employers.<br />And on Saturday Michael Gove, the environment secretary, prompted angry complaints after joking<br />that being interviewed by the BBC presenter John Humphrys was like entering Mr. Weinstein’s bedroom and hoping "you emerge with your dignity intact." Mr. Gove apologized unreservedly.<br />Then, as now, a weak Conservative government that was divided over Europe became embroiled in a series of scandals<br />that were all the more embarrassing because the prime minister, John Major, had promised that his party would get "back to basics." In an earlier era, women were openly taunted.<br />Last year Isabel Hardman, a senior political journalist at The Spectator magazine, described how a male lawmaker<br />had approached her with the words "I want to talk to the totty," using British slang for an attractive woman.<br />Last week the opposition Labour Party suspended one of its lawmakers, Jared O’Mara, while it investigates allegations<br />that he made a series of misogynistic and homophobic comments.
