{"id":48783,"date":"2022-10-21T12:54:28","date_gmt":"2022-10-21T11:54:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/?p=48783"},"modified":"2022-10-21T14:41:43","modified_gmt":"2022-10-21T13:41:43","slug":"labour-mp-christian-matheson-resigns-amidst-sexual-misconduct-claims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/labour-mp-christian-matheson-resigns-amidst-sexual-misconduct-claims\/","title":{"rendered":"Labour MP Christian Matheson resigns amidst sexual misconduct claims"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Labour MP Christian Matheson has resigned after being accused of two sexual misconduct claims by a former member of his staff.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Independent Expert Panel <a href=\"https:\/\/www.parliament.uk\/globalassets\/mps-lords--offices\/standards-and-financial-interests\/independent-expert-panel\/hc-823---the-conduct-of-mr-christian-matheson-mp.pdf\" title=\"https:\/\/www.parliament.uk\/globalassets\/mps-lords--offices\/standards-and-financial-interests\/independent-expert-panel\/hc-823---the-conduct-of-mr-christian-matheson-mp.pdf\">determined<\/a> that the &#8220;aggravating&#8221; behaviours exhibited by Matheson warranted his four-week suspension.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Reportedly, the married MP made physical advances including holding the complainant\u2019s hand and attempting to kiss the her on the mouth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>All of the actions were unwanted and unreciprocated, leading Mr Matheson to admit his breach of code and unprofessional conduct. Although, the MP <a href=\"https:\/\/news.sky.com\/story\/labour-mp-christian-matheson-should-face-four-week-suspension-for-serious-sexual-misconduct-parliamentary-watchdog-12726202\" title=\"https:\/\/news.sky.com\/story\/labour-mp-christian-matheson-should-face-four-week-suspension-for-serious-sexual-misconduct-parliamentary-watchdog-12726202\">maintains his innocence<\/a>, stating \u201cI have been found guilty of several allegations that I know to be untrue.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After appealing the recommended four-week suspension, the MP made the decision to surrender his seat and \u201cseek to rebuild my life elsewhere.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to a statement by Matheson, the claims have had a negative effect on his health, leading to his hospitalisation. He then issued apologies to his constituents, the House of Commons and his family. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A by-election will follow Mr Matheson&#8217;s resignation in the City of Chester in the coming weeks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Words: Cerah Handsaker | Subbing: Yana Trup<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Labour MP Christian Matheson has resigned after being accused of two sexual misconduct claims by a former member of his staff. The Independent Expert Panel determined that the &#8220;aggravating&#8221; behaviours exhibited by Matheson warranted his&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":476,"featured_media":48784,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[93],"tags":[986,7256,5566,6543],"class_list":["post-48783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-breaking-news","tag-christian-matheson","tag-sexual-harassment","tag-uk-politics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48783","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/476"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48783"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48783\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48827,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48783\/revisions\/48827"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}