The MP faces a two-day punishment
Labour’s Liam Byrne should be suspended from the House of Commons for bullying a members of his constituency staff, a disciplinary panel has concluded.
The MP for Birmingham Hodge Hill was found to have “ostracised” a constituency staff member in a dispute that constituted a “serious breach” of Parliament’s bullying rules, by cutting contact with the employee for several months and denying him access to his IT account.
Byrne has said he was “profoundly sorry” and that he had apologised to the member of staff.
The committee recommended Byrne should issue a written apology to the complainant, undertake training to learn how to matter manage his staff, and be temporarily banned for two days from the Parliamentary estate.
“The impact of this behaviour was compounded by the fact that it occurred during the first period of lockdown when the complainant was physically separated from work colleagues, uncertain of his future work status and had undergone a period of ill health,” the panel found.
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