The news site says that in a statement posted on Facebook on Wednesday, the ex-Labour MP said he wanted to set the record straight “in case there remains any misunderstanding” about his departure from the party after more than 40 years of membership:
Mr Davies represented Swansea West from 2010 until 2024, winning four elections, and previously served as MP for Croydon Central.
He was suspended by Labour in June 2023 after allegations of inappropriate behaviour towards women were published anonymously online — allegations he denied, which did not involve criminal conduct, and which were never tested at a hearing.
Mr Davies says the suspension came a week before he was due to be confirmed as Labour’s Swansea West candidate for the 2024 general election.
In an interview with Nation.Cymru last month, he said the party’s handling of the case amounted to being put on “political death row”.
He says he waited 23 weeks to be told what the complaints against him were — against a six-week standard recommended by the party-commissioned Forde Report — and that no disciplinary hearing was convened in more than a year of suspension.
When the general election was called in May 2024, he says the party refused to hold a hearing in the two weeks before candidate nominations closed — meaning he remained suspended and could not stand as Labour’s candidate.
Mr Davies says he repeatedly asked for the hearing he believed would clear his name, and responded to the complaints within two weeks of finally receiving them.
He resigned from the party after the election, describing its complaints process as one he had “completely lost my trust and confidence” in.
Torsten Bell, now Pensions Minister, was selected as Labour’s Swansea West candidate and elected in July 2024.
The complaints process was overseen by the party’s then executive legal director, Alex Barros-Curtis — who was later selected as Labour’s candidate for the vacant Cardiff West seat, and elected in July 2024.
Mr Davies told Nation.Cymru it was “difficult not to conclude” that the objective of the process “was not to get to the truth of the allegation in an independent forum, but to ensure that I did not stand for re-election”.
In a statement, a Labour Party spokesperson said the party “assesses all complaints thoroughly in line with our rules and procedures”.
Although Davies' statement is inevitably self-serving, it still provides some insight into how the Labour Party operates and the way they create spaces for their favoured parachutists.
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