Conor McGinn: St Helens North MP suspended from Labour Party pending investigation - after formal complaint

St Helens North MP Conor McGinn has been suspended from the Labour Party pending an official investigation. This comes after a complaint about him was made to the political party.

As a precautionary measure, Mr McGinn has had his Labour whip removed which means he will now sit in Parliament as an independent MP. He has served the Merseyside constituency as a representative of the party since 2015.

In a statement issued to The Guardian, Conor McGinn said: “I strongly reject any suggestion of wrongdoing and I look forward to the matter being resolved quickly, I have not been told the details of the complaint but I am confident that it is entirely unfounded. The Labour party has informed me that it is automatically required to apply a temporary procedural suspension while a complaint is investigated."

The 38-year-old is the latest Labour MP to be suspended under the party’s new complaints process. It was set up in 2021 in the wake of controversy surrounding the handling of anti-semitism within the party.

The change was backed by party members during its annual conference last year. It followed an Equalities and Human Rights Commission report, published in 2020, that recommended Labour put in place “long-term arrangements for independent oversight of the complaint handling process.”