It’s been a busy old week in politics, and in the midst of it Mike Hancock, disgraced former MP and alleged ‘pro-Putin’ ‘Kremlin lobbyist’ [1], has reared his head again. The Liberal Democrats are no doubt thrilled to be reminded of their erstwhile colleague. Better than that - they can still take tea with him in the Mother of Parliaments! The Mail on Sunday [2] has reported that 7 years after the man left Parliament, and 8 years after the Lib Dems were finally forced, red-faced and squinnying, to sideline ‘Mr Teflon’, Hancock is still able, if he chooses, to swan around the parliamentary estate courtesy of his special ‘Category X’ pass.
Although actually, it’s not that special. Today I learned that it’s something that former Members of Parliament are given simply by filling in a short form [3]. As long as the ex-MP can remember their own names, dates of service and write in capital letters, it should take all of 30 seconds. Job done; this way to the Members’ Dining Room (Mondays) followed by drinks on the terrace (any day). Some of these dining privileges allow Cat X pass holders to escort up to three guests as long as they are ‘family members’ [4]. Hmmm. Who, pray, checks these things? I know who! No-one. That’s why the Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle is so fucked off with the Cat X system and has ordered a review.
To be honest, I’m personally very fucked off at the thought of Hancock and his family enjoying parliamentary perks and scoffing food, coffees and gin subsidised by the taxpayer, while he trousers a not inconsiderable parliamentary pension. I’d certainly be wary of sitting next to his son Dean [5].
Dean Hancock assaults Steve Reigate. (Source: Southampton Echo). Hancock Jr was convicted of Actual Bodily Harm in 2014. [5]
So in terms of Mike Hancock having this Cat X pass, I’m not surprised that his victim ‘Annie’ told the Mail on Sunday,
‘I feel sickened. Anger is an understatement and I will continue to fight so that this narcissist of a human being is ousted from holding anything to do with Parliament.’ (Mail on Sunday 8th May 2022) [2]
But unfortunately for Hancock’s victim ‘Annie’, the review ordered by the Speaker focuses on lobbyists’ use and abuse of passes, and Hancock indicated in April when approached by the Mail that he has no intention of voluntarily surrendering his [6]. That Hancock does enjoy the use of his pass was confirmed in April this year:
‘Last night Mr Hancock confirmed that he held the pass, which he used as recently as 2021, and told the MoS he has no intention of giving it up’. (Mail on Sunday 10th April 2022) [6]
What is extraordinary - among many extraordinary things in Hancock’s quasi-delusional world - is that the former MP allegedly already has form for abusing his parliamentary pass, involving on one occasion showing a sex worker around the Houses of Parliament after hours. The story produced the lurid tabloid headline, ‘“Spy” MP took a hooker to the Commons’, with the delightful sub-header, ‘Lib Dem Hancock let her sit on Queen’s throne’ [7]. To the best of my knowledge Hancock has never formally challenged any of the extensive reporting on this.
He used to bluster a lot about ‘clearing his name’ but that’s all it was - bluster. Any fool could see it. (I’d left the Lib Dem Group in Portsmouth in disgust at the antics of Hancock and his Lib Dem colleagues months before he finally ‘fessed up to some of his wrongdoings - and if I could see it, so could my colleagues. They just chose to put the blinkers on for political reasons, and sod the morals involved.)
Mike Hancock’s Rusian aide and lover Ekaterina ‘Katia’ Zatuliveter was investigated by MI5 (Credit: Daily Record) [8]
The ‘spy’ dig in the newspaper headline was in relation to his employment of his young, attractive Russian lover Katia Zatuliveter, and Hancock’s Russophile tendencies, that attracted the attention of the British security services MI5 [8].
Russian influences, dishonesty and sexual harassment - it’s quite the heady combination.
And this man gets to have a parliamentary pass.
Not surprisingly, Hancock’s victim ‘Annie’ is furious. The man who had a massively upsetting impact on her life, and who bullshitted about it for years, is still swanning about parliament while she struggles with PTSD. It’s a strange kind of justice that rewards men like Hancock and further grinds down the victims.
The Mail on Sunday journalist Anna Mikhailova reports today that moves really are now afoot among the parliamentary authorities to review Cat X passes, and one has to hope that it’s a process that will not only be focused on their use and abuse by lobbyists.
If Parliament can’t currently take Hancock’s pass away from him, then the Speaker must use the review to change archaic parliamentary rules to take into account the moral imperative that men must not abuse their privilege to get at vulnerable women, and to ensure that such men aren’t rewarded for failure by Parliament when their electorate finally says, ‘Enough’.
It’s time to put victims first.
Minor edit: 10/6/22
Sources and Acknowledgments
My thanks to ‘Annie’ for her bravery in speaking out.
[1] https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2010/dec/05/mike-hancock-russian-assistants-meetings
[2] https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10792977/Woman-sued-ex-Liberal-Democrat-MP-sexual-harassment-calls-Commons-pass-revoked.html
[3] https://www.parliament.uk/site-information/foi/foi-and-eir/commons-foi-disclosures/other-house-matters/parliamentary-pass-categories-2020-1/
[4] https://www.parliament.uk/globalassets/documents/foi/152932.pdf
[5] https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/11299719.mp-mike-hancocls-son-dean-hancock-sentenced-to-community-service-for-attacking-photographer/
[6] https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10703753/Ex-Lib-Dem-MP-Mike-Hancock-four-year-affair-aide-Commons-pass.html
[7] https://order-order.com/2015/03/24/commie-hancock-making-most-of-last-week-in-parliament/
[8] https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/lib-dem-mps-lover-was-spying-for-russian-1084575