MP Barry Sheerman has made allegations of of “shameful” bullying in Parliament involving a Government MP.
Huddersfield’s veteran Labour MP spoke out over a recent case where he claimed a male Conservative MP had bullied a female opposition MP within the House of Commons.
Raising a point of order in the Commons, he said: “In all my years in this House I have never heard of a case of bullying in this House of one member against another.
“I have just heard of a case ... in the environs of this House, one member acting in a bullying way toward another.
“This case is shameful. I’m not going to name names but it’s a man, a Government MP, and an opposition female.
“I don’t even want an inquiry on it but I want a set of rules that verbal or any other sort of bullying of one member to another is not allowed in this House or anywhere in the environments of this House.”
Speaker John Bercow said the code of conduct of MP behaviour was “sacrosanct” and agreed to make inquiries into the allegations with the whips, the members who are responsible for party discipline.
He said: “There is a code of conduct and that code of conduct binds all members.
“I manifestly cannot comment on a particular case - not least because you haven’t given me and wouldn’t give and I wouldn’t ask you to give me the details of it.
“That principle that the code of conduct must be observed is sacrosanct.”
