DISTURBING

British Lawmaker Says 5 Colleagues Have Sexually Assaulted Him

He said one assailant targeted him “repeatedly.”

A British lawmaker says he has been sexually assaulted on multiple occasions by other members of the British parliament. Chris Bryant, a politician in the U.K.’s left-leaning Labour Party, did not identify his alleged attackers but recounted some details of the incidents in his new book Code of Conduct: Why We Need to Fix Parliament—and How to Do It. “Over the years five male MPs have felt my bottom uninvited,” Bryant wrote in the book, extracts of which were published in the i newspaper. Bryant, who is gay, also wrote: “One of them, who was not out, did so repeatedly. Another, who is still in the house and still does not accept that he is gay, pushed me against a wall and felt my crotch.” He said another male lawmaker “rubbed himself behind me” as they were queuing for a parliamentary vote, and that he saw the same individual “later snogging two men” at a bar in the Palace of Westminster. “I know other gay MPs and staff who have faced the same,” he wrote.