Ex-Labour MP accused of sexual harassment joins Plaid Cymru

Detailed summary

Geraint Davies has joined Wales’ ruling party.

LONDON — A former Labour MP who was suspended from the party following allegations of sexual harassment has joined Plaid Cymru, the ruling party in Wales.

Geraint Davies made the announcement on the news website Nation Cymru, where he claimed that he was forced out as an MP because of “local rivalries and disobeying Keir Starmer’s orders to speaking [sic] out against killings in Gaza.”

He described allegations of sexual misconduct against him as “untrue anonymous hearsay in the media.”

In 2023, five women alleged that Davies, a former Commons select committee chair, subjected them to unwanted sexual attention, both physical and verbal, after coming into contact with them through his work as an MP. Davies had the whip suspended as a Labour MP immediately after the allegations were made public but remained a member of the party until 2025.

When the claims against Davies were first reported by POLITICO, he said he did not “recognize” them, adding: “If I have inadvertently caused offence to anyone, then I am naturally sorry.”

In these instances, the women had raised concerns about his behavior informally but had not complained in writing.

At least two women later filed official complaints with the Labour Party, resulting in an investigation lasting more than a year.

Davies was not eligible to stand as a candidate in the 2024 election because he was suspended, and quit the party ahead of a planned hearing on his conduct in 2025. As a result, the hearing never went ahead.

The former MP for Swansea West argued in the article published Thursday that the party engineered his removal as a candidate for factional reasons. “I was made to wait 23 weeks without any complaints. When complaints were made, they were ‘to support other women’ who had not made any complaints. None were reported to Parliament,” he said.

Opening of the article, excerpted from Politico Europe. To read the rest, open the article on the publisher's site.