How did Jared O’Mara end up in Parliament, and will he remain there for much longer? Today he was suspended from the Labour whip, and an investigation was launched into the allegations about his online posts and conversations, including an allegation that he used misogynistic and transphobic language to a constituent this year. The suspension happened just before Prime Minister’s Questions, and after the session, Jeremy Corbyn’s spokesman said the party had acted today because the latest claims, which O’Mara disputes, related to more recent behaviour.
The curious thing is that while some of O’Mara’s colleagues say they had known about the allegations for weeks – as well as the fact that journalists had been working on the story for some time too – the official line from Jeremy Corbyn’s office is that the national Labour Party only heard them this week. Corbyn’s spokesman said that ‘as far as I’m aware, there was no knowledge at the party headquarters about this material until this week’.
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