As Guido pointed out when breaking the news on Tuesday, Hartlepool MP Mike Hill will conveniently bow out just before his pending sexual harassment tribunal in May. The story is a squalid one that Guido spent time highlighting last year: Labour removed the whip in September 2019 when the allegations from a former member of staff surfaced, only to then restore it under false pretences of the complaint being withdrawn in order for the Corbyn-friendly MP to stand in the 2019 election. The complaint was never withdrawn, merely “parked” pending the outcome of an investigation by the Commons complaint committee…

Suzanne McKie QC, who’s representing the claimant, has now come out swinging; attacking the Labour Party as having been in “radio silence” for the past 18 months, and slamming both Corbyn and Starmer for failing to offer support to her client – at the cost of “significant distress, lost employment and had not had access to counselling”. Labour has massive questions to answer about their handling of the case – whether Hill is in or out of the Commons…