Corbyn defends promotion of Kelvin Hopkins despite “reprimand”

Jeremy Corbyn has defended his decision to promote Kelvin Hopkins to the shadow cabinet after the Luton North MP received a “reprimand” over allegations of sexual harassment.

The Labour leader, who has faced questions over why Hopkins was briefly handed the shadow culture brief following last summer’s wave of resignations, said he was aware of the rebuke issued by the chief whip.

Hopkins, 76, was spoken to by Rosie Winterton after claims he behaved inappropriately towards Ava Etemadzadeh, an activist in her 20s. He was suspended from Labour last week and denies impropriety.

Yesterday Corbyn said he thought the case was “closed” and that it had been “reasonable” to give Hopkins a new role.

“He had been reprimanded, the case had been closed. I thought it was reasonable to appoint him, albeit for a very short time, to shadow cabinet,” he said, in comments reported by the BBC.

“I can’t discuss hindsight. All I can say is I took a decision based on what I knew at the time and he made a good contribution to the shadow cabinet during the short time he was there.”

The matter must be “investigated and resolved”, he added.

“Now the case has been reopened and it will be looked at again. He has been suspended from party membership, which is the decision I took immediately I heard about the later revelations.”

Hopkins returned to the backbenches in October last year when Corbyn carried out a reshuffle after seeing off a challenge from Owen Smith.

He says he merely “put an arm around” Etemadzadeh and, in a lengthy statement published on Friday, categorically denied his behaviour amounted to harassment.