A BBC Panorama documentary commissioned to look into the internal handling of claims of widespread sexual harassment inside the Palace of Westminster has been dropped for the foreseeable future, the Observer understands, despite months of research.
The prestigious investigative programme, which had been due to go out this summer, has now been removed from future broadcast schedules without any public explanation from the BBC.
But one of the key contributors, a former parliamentary employee who had waived her anonymity so that she could discuss her experiences on screen in the planned exposé, complained last week on social media of the shock and sorrow she feels at being stymied in an attempt to shed light on the harassment she claims she suffered.
A BBC spokesperson said this weekend that the corporation makes no comment on its investigations.
The participant says she has been given no satisfactory reason for the cancellation of the documentary. A campaigner on the issue of sexual harassment, she has previously written in the i newspaper of her experiences, and of the support she offers fellow victims.
The BBC documentary was originally intended as a response to the growing tally of proved or alleged incidents in Westminster – including allegations that David Warburton, the independent MP for Somerton and Frome, had sexually harassed staff.
In 2020 Charlie Elphicke, who was then the Conservative MP for Dover, was found guilty of sexual assault. And the following year, an employment tribunal found against the former Labour MP for Hartlepool Mike Hill, after he was accused of harassing and victimising an employee in his parliamentary office.
