SCOTTISH LABOUR’S Monica Lennon has warned her party against complacency in the battle against misogyny in politics.

Ms Lennon, who has endured harassment and abuse both on and offline, argued that talented women are too often either discouraged from standing for office or driven out of politics by a “toxic culture.”

“Misogyny is a big problem in our society and institutional misogyny is a real issue,” she said.

“Political parties are very much part of that problem, particularly for parties that are aspiring to win elections and form governments.

“How can we hold public bodies, businesses and others to account if we don’t clean up our own act?”

In 2016, Ms Lennon went public with her experience of being sexually assaulted at a Labour Party social while serving as a South Lanarkshire councillor and her lack of confidence that any complaint would be properly heard. 

“I didn’t feel I would be believed,” she said at the time.

Seven years on, the former Scottish Labour leadership contender warned: “I think there’s always a risk complacency can creep in.

“Just because we’ve had a strong record in the past of trailblazing policies and getting more women into politics, sometimes within the party you’ll hear people who’ll say: ‘Oh we’ve done our bit.’

“I’ve seen more examples creeping back in of all-male panels or events where women are very much on the periphery.

“Maybe that’s a symptom of [our having] a UK leader who is a man and the Scottish leader [being] a man and some of our senior spokespeople around finance and economy [being] men.

“If we’re serious, we need to be thinking well ahead into not just the Westminster election, the Scottish Parliament elections and local government [elections].”