Chris Bryant claims he was groped by several MPs as he demands 'parliament must change'

Labour MP Chris Bryant has said he has been groped a number of times by colleagues in parliament during the course of his career.

The current chair of the Standards Committee is calling for Westminster to be "cleaned up" as he revealed he has been inappropriately touched by several male MPs during two decades as a politician in the Commons.

It comes as the Rhondda MP appeared on ITV1's Good Morning Britain to talk about his new book Code of Conduct where he claims the current parliament is the "worst in history".

"Twenty-two MPS have been suspended from parliament for a day or more since December 2019 or have left because they knew a report was coming for sexual harassment bullying, paid lobbying - and we've really got to do better", he said.

When asked about his experience of harassment, he said: "I've told this story before and also it relates to events that happened quite a long time ago but in my first few years between 2001-2006, various older men touched me up in the division lobbies

"I'm not the only person it has happened to. I remember seeing older men touching women's bottoms completely uninvited.

"Back then we just brushed all of this under the carpet, you never would've complained."

The former priest said a lot has changed since then but there is "still a long way to go".

He added: "I want every single person who works or visits Parliament to know it's a safe place to work. [What happened to me] is the least of it."

"I believe in democracy, but at the moment, voters really distrust us."

He said that there should be more transparency about second jobs MPs have.

Mr Bryant added: "I think we should ban some second jobs. No consultancies, no directorships - you should declare if you have 3% shareholding, at the moment its 15%. I don't think you should have a conflict of interest".

He then argued MP Nadine Dorries should be forced out of parliament for failing to attend for the last six months.

It comes after she said she was standing down as an MP but later said she would not until she found out why she was denied a peerage.

Mr Bryant, who has been the Labour MP for Rhondda since 2001, said: "I don't want to pretend I'm a good person, I've got feet of clay as well and viewers, if they want to, can look up all of my misdemeanours in the past, but I do want us to be good enough but I don't think we are at the moment.

"I don't want to preach to my colleagues, all of us should strive to do better."

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