Alison Smith, a Politics tutor at Lady Margaret Hall, is among one of a number of women who have spoken out against Lord Christopher Rennard in the latest sexual scandal to shake the country. Lord Rennard, former Liberal Democrat chief executive and currently a peer in the House of Lords, has been accused by various women of sexual harassment in a programme broadcast by Channel 4 news last week.
Smith alleged in the programme that Lord Rennard had inappropriately touched her and a friend at a party six years ago at the peer’s home. She claims to have reported the incident to senior members of the party came to no avail. In particular, Rennard has been accused of taking advantage of his position of power in order to approach young women at training events for female political candidates.
Citing one of her reasons for making her allegations public, Smith told Cherwell, “We had to think of the safety of future generations of women entering politics. I felt this very keenly as a politics lecturer, because some of the talented young women that I teach will hopefully stand for public office in the future, and they could find themselves at such events within a few years”.
The allegations, made by several women, refer to events which took place between five and ten years ago. They were reportedly brought up with senior Party leaders, including Paul Burstow, the Lib Dem Chief Whip, and the equalities spokesman Jo Swinson, now Minister for Women and Equalities. One woman claimed that when she informed senior party members about Lord Rennard’s advances on her, “they openly laughed and thought it was hilarious.”
The Liberal Democrat Party has launched two investigations into the allegations of sexual harassment, and how the party has dealt with these allegations in the past. In an interview with the BBC, Vince Cable insisted that these investigations will have an “independent element”, and denied that he or Nick Clegg had any knowledge of the allegations before they were made public.
Speaking to Cherwell, Smith insisted, “We need to change the culture where people are prepared to turn a blind eye to such damaging behaviour. The ‘Rennard Issue’ is the main reason why the Liberal Democrats have one of the lowest percentages of female MPs of any mainstream political party in any Western democracy. Hopefully that culture will now change.”
In a statement released on Sunday, the Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg maintained that “the allegations made on Channel 4 concerning Lord Rennard last Thursday were extremely serious and distressing to the women involved. It is critical they are investigated thoroughly and dealt with properly and they will be. In the meantime, I will not stand by and allow my party to be subject to a show trial of innuendo, half-truths and slurs. The important thing is that we respect the women who have come forward and do everything to get to the truth.”
Lord Rennard has announced that he will step down from his position in the Liberal Democrat group in the House of Lords, and has resigned from the Federal Policy Committee, the body in charge of writing party manifestos. Lord Rennard’s lawyers dismissed the allegations as a “total distortion of his character”, adding, “Not a single complaint of misconduct was made against him to his knowledge during the 27 years he worked for the Liberal Democrat party. Despite the claim made by one woman in the report, Lord Rennard continued working closely with her for 10 years after the alleged event described.”
Georgia Luscombe, Female Welfare Officer at Lady Margaret Hall, told Cherwell, “Allegations of sexual harassment against women in Parliament, particularly those in a subordinate role to their male counterparts and thus more vulnerable to exploitation, should be taken extremely seriously. Failure to do so would be damaging both to political parties’ reputation but also to women’s political aspirations.”
Magdalen student Elizabeth Brierley said, “In their own Constitution, the Liberal Democrats reject discrimination of any sort and ‘oppose all forms of entrenched privilege and inequality’, but this most recent scandal has shown that even the Liberal Democratic party tolerates misogyny. By covering up the situation and not dealing with the claims of abuse as they were made, the Lib Dem party has reinforced the prevalent male view that sexual abuse, and allegations thereof, are trivial. Furthermore, what has made this situation all the more tragic is that one of the women involved has said that she didn’t make a formal complaint because she didn’t want “any fuss”. It seems to me that it will only be when allegations of sexual abuse are no longer seen as a waste of time and a bit of a joke, that we might then be able to strive for real equality.”
