London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Monday, Jul 21, 2025

MP Liam Byrne to be suspended from Commons for bullying former employee

MP Liam Byrne to be suspended from Commons for bullying former employee

Labour MP Liam Byrne has been found to have bullied a former member of staff and will be suspended from the Commons for two days.

The ex-Cabinet minister and MP for Birmingham Hodge Hill ostracised a former assistant after a minor office dispute, an investigation found.

Parliamentary Standards Commissioner Kathryn Stone said his behaviour was a "significant misuse of power".

Mr Byrne said he had apologised and was "profoundly sorry".

A number of other allegations relating to unreasonable behaviour by Mr Byrne and pressure to work excessive hours were not upheld, the report found.

The investigation was started almost two years ago after complaints were made by the MP's former assistant David Barker to the Independent Complaints and Grievance Scheme (ICGS).

The recently-appointed body rules on bullying and sexual harassment complaints in the Commons and has now published its findings.

Mr Barker, a Labour party member who runs the food bank Baby Aid Birmingham, began working for Mr Byrne on a series of short-term contracts in April 2019, but lodged a complaint about him a year later. He agreed to be named in the report.

The independent expert panel report said: "The respondent's [Mr Byrne's] decision not to engage with the complainant following what he perceived to be acts of misconduct was not, as he argued, a reasonable HR strategy. It was bullying.

"He should, as he now accepts, have tackled any alleged misconduct through a proper disciplinary process not by ostracising the complainant."

Speaking exclusively to BBC Midlands Today, Mr Barker said his experience had had a terrible impact on his mental health and had left him in fear of how he would be judged by future employers and within the party.

"When I contacted the ICGS I was devastated and increasingly isolated," he said.

"I knew my job was over and nothing could be done to get it back, but now my career in Labour was at risk too because I had no reference."

Mr Byrne, who has held his seat since 2004, served as a member of the Cabinet in Gordon Brown's administration and was chief secretary to the Treasury from 2009-2010. Before that he served in a number of other ministerial jobs.

He was Labour's candidate for West Midlands Metro Mayor last year, but lost to Conservative rival Andy Street.

'Valuable lesson'


In a statement, he said he accepted he "did not resolve the dispute correctly with a proper disciplinary process", and failed to fulfil his "obligations as an employer and Parliament's Behaviour Code".

He also accepted it was a breach of Parliament's Behaviour Code, which he said he fully supported and thanked the panel for accepting his "genuine remorse".

It had been "a valuable lesson for me and one I am determined to learn as me and my team seek to offer the best possible service and voice for the residents of Hodge Hill", Mr Byrne said.

The BBC understands a separate allegation that parliamentary staff and funds were used to support Mr Byrne's mayoral campaign has been made to the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA). If found to be true this would be a breach of parliamentary rules.

In a letter, Mr Byrne's lawyers said this allegation was not new and was not currently being investigated by IPSA. He categorically denied any breach of the rules.

David Barker began working for Liam Byrne in 2019


Mr Barker, who claims he was paid via the parliamentary system, said his work for the MP had related almost entirely to his mayoral campaign.

He said he had raised this with Labour figures but added the issue had never been resolved.

In response to the ICGS findings, The Labour Party said it "fully supports the recommendations of this independent report, including the proposed sanction".

In his evidence to the investigation, Mr Barker said Mr Byrne had begun excluding him following a minor disagreement about being able to continue food bank collections in the days leading up to the first Covid lockdown in March 2020.

Mr Barker was sent home and then ignored by Mr Byrne in WhatsApp communications within the team during lockdown and when he contracted Covid-19, he said.

He was subsequently signed off work with stress on 4 June and Mr Barker said Mr Byrne had made no efforts to contact him, before a colleague informed him a month later his contract would not be renewed.

Mr Barker said he had been ignored by the MP after a minor disagreement


"When Liam first stopped talking to me, my colleagues and I assumed he just needed a couple of days to calm down and apologise," he said.

"I gave it a couple of weeks, but during that time he ignored me telling him I had Covid-19 symptoms on six separate occasions."

Mr Barker, a Labour candidate for the upcoming local elections in Birmingham on 5 May, added: "I then grew anxious that something deeper was wrong and I was uncertain of what to do next without losing my job."

The report said Mr Byrne removed Mr Barker's access to the MP's social media accounts and "wiped" a work mobile being used for the mayoral campaign.

It found Mr Byrne's decision to disable Mr Barker's access to his parliamentary IT account had a "punitive" effect. This was "disproportionate and amounted to malicious behaviour".

Mr Byrne claimed he had passed line management of Mr Barker to his office manager in London, but the member of staff denied that had taken place and the report stated the panel did not find Mr Byrne's account convincing.

Standards commissioner Ms Stone, who reviewed the investigators' findings for the panel, also concluded Mr Byrne did not co-operate with the investigation in a satisfactory manner, which led to "unacceptable" delays.

Separate to the ICGS investigation, a number of Labour sources have expressed concerns to the BBC about Mr Byrne's behaviour towards both Labour staff and his team.

A senior figure who asked to remain anonymous said: "Anyone who knows him, or has worked with him will not be surprised that this day has come."

Another former colleague said Mr Byrne could be "perfectly nice" but was "prone to fits of rage" which they had personally witnessed.

Like many MPs, he tended to hire young people who were keen and did not know the way they were being treated was not OK, the former colleague added.

A similar accusation was made by Mr Barker but was not upheld in the expert panel report.

Lawyers for Mr Byrne said the Office of the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards and the Independent Expert Panel had both dismissed the allegation he could be "volatile" and "prone to fits of rage".

It was also "simply not true" Mr Byrne employed young staff who did not know the way they were being treated was not OK, they said.

"All staff are briefed on the parliamentary behaviour code which is on display in Mr Byrne's office," lawyers for the MP said.


David Barker said he had felt ostracised within Mr Byrne's office


Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Man Dies After Being Pulled Into MRI Machine Due to Metal Chain in New York Clinic
NVIDIA Achieves $4 Trillion Valuation Amid AI Demand
US Revokes Visas of Brazilian Corrupted Judges Amid Fake Bolsonaro Investigation
U.S. Congress Approves Rescissions Act Cutting Federal Funding for NPR and PBS
North Korea Restricts Foreign Tourist Access to New Seaside Resort
Brazil's Supreme Court Imposes Radical Restrictions on Former President Bolsonaro
Centrist Criticism of von der Leyen Resurfaces as she Survives EU Confidence Vote
Judge Criticizes DOJ Over Secrecy in Dropping Charges Against Gang Leader
Apple Closes $16.5 Billion Tax Dispute With Ireland
Von der Leyen Faces Setback Over €2 Trillion EU Budget Proposal
UK and Germany Collaborate on Global Military Equipment Sales
Trump Plans Over 10% Tariffs on African and Caribbean Nations
Flying Taxi CEO Reclaims Billionaire Status After Stock Surge
Epstein Files Deepen Republican Party Divide
Zuckerberg Faces $8 Billion Privacy Lawsuit From Meta Shareholders
FIFA Pressured to Rethink World Cup Calendar Due to Climate Change
SpaceX Nears $400 Billion Valuation With New Share Sale
Microsoft, US Lab to Use AI for Faster Nuclear Plant Licensing
Trump Walks Back Talk of Firing Fed Chair Jerome Powell
Zelensky Reshuffles Cabinet to Win Support at Home and in Washington
"Can You Hit Moscow?" Trump Asked Zelensky To Make Putin "Feel The Pain"
Irish Tech Worker Detained 100 days by US Authorities for Overstaying Visa
Dimon Warns on Fed Independence as Trump Administration Eyes Powell’s Succession
Church of England Removes 1991 Sexuality Guidelines from Clergy Selection
Superman Franchise Achieves Success with Latest Release
Hungary's Viktor Orban Rejects Agreements on Illegal Migration
Jeff Bezos Considers Purchasing Condé Nast as a Wedding Gift
Ghislaine Maxwell Says She’s Ready to Testify Before Congress on Epstein’s Criminal Empire
Bal des Pompiers: A Celebration of Community and Firefighter Culture in France
FBI Chief Kash Patel Denies Resignation Speculations Amid Epstein List Controversy
Air India Pilot’s Mental Health Records Under Scrutiny
Google Secures Windsurf AI Coding Team in $2.4 Billion Licence Deal
Jamie Dimon Warns Europe Is Losing Global Competitiveness and Flags Market Complacency
South African Police Minister Suspended Amid Organised Crime Allegations
Nvidia CEO Claims Chinese Military Reluctance to Use US AI Technology
Hong Kong Advances Digital Asset Strategy to Address Economic Challenges
Australia Rules Out Pre‑commitment of Troops, Reinforces Defence Posture Amid US‑China Tensions
Martha Wells Says Humanity Still Far from True Artificial Intelligence
Nvidia Becomes World’s First Four‑Trillion‑Dollar Company Amid AI Boom
U.S. Resumes Deportations to Third Countries After Supreme Court Ruling
Excavation Begins at Site of Mass Grave for Children at Former Irish Institution
Iranian President Reportedly Injured During Israeli Strike on Secret Facility
EU Delays Retaliatory Tariffs Amid New U.S. Threats on Imports
Trump Defends Attorney General Pam Bondi Amid Epstein Memo Backlash
Renault Shares Drop as CEO Luca de Meo Announces Departure Amid Reports of Move to Kering
Senior Aides for King Charles and Prince Harry Hold Secret Peace Summit
Anti‑Semitism ‘Normalised’ in Middle‑Class Britain, Says Commission Co‑Chair
King Charles Meets David Beckham at Chelsea Flower Show
If the Department is Really About Justice: Ghislaine Maxwell Should Be Freed Now
NYC Candidate Zohran Mamdani’s ‘Antifada’ Remarks Spark National Debate on Political Language and Economic Policy
×