Labour MP Nick Brown has whip suspended following complaint

Nick Brown has had the Labour Party parliamentary whip suspended after a complaint was lodged against the MP for Newcastle upon Tyne East under the party’s new independent complaints system.

The Guardian revealed on Wednesday evening that Brown, who served as chief whip for every Labour leader from Tony Blair until 2021, said he had not been told what the complaint was about but that he is “cooperating fully” with the investigation.

The Labour backbencher is one of the party’s longest serving MPs and is believed to be the highest-profile figure to face investigation under Labour’s new ‘independent grievance and complaints system’.

Brown said in a statement: “There has been a complaint made about me to the Labour party, which is under investigation. I am therefore under an administrative suspension from the Labour party until the investigation is concluded. I’m not aware of what the complaint is. I am cooperating fully with the investigation.”

Under Labour’s rules, an MP who has been administratively suspended and put under investigation has the party whip suspended as an automatic precaution.

Brown was reappointed as the Labour Party’s chief whip after Keir Starmer’s won the 2020 leadership election, making him the only MP to have held the role for three non-consecutive terms, under six different leaders across four decades. He left the role during a reshuffle of the shadow cabinet in May 2021.

Labour introduced its new independent complaints system after the party was found to have been responsible for “unlawful acts of harassment and discrimination” following an investigation by the Equalities and Human Rights Commission into the party’s handling of antisemitism complaints.