Westminster has forgotten its #MeToo promises – but the press is too busy chasing titillating scoops to notice

Last Monday, Conservative MP Caroline Nokes told Sky News that Stanley Johnson, the prime minister’s father, had once smacked her “on the backside about as hard as he could” at an event. The story rose and fell as Downing Street declined to comment and Johnson told The Sun he had “no recollection” of Nokes.

On Sunday, she discussed the incident on Times Radio, and accused some members of the press of having a somewhat twisted sense of priorities.

“I’ve seen a number of journalists try to trawl my past sex life as some sort of defence for someone doing that,” she said. “We are literally in a culture that is trying to turn it on the woman, make it her fault, blame her, accusing her of making it a political vendetta.”

Though she did not name any reporters, the revelation does not seem especially surprising. After all, who can forget what happened to Kate Maltby? The commentator accused the then cabinet minister Damian Green of touching her inappropriately, and the tabloids responded by attacking her instead.

It is both a depressing and an enraging state of affairs. The #MeToo movement did, for a fraction of a second, look like it was going to clean up Westminster and rid it of its sex pests. New systems were being put in place, and – perhaps more importantly – we were told that the culture was changing.

Men would no longer feel entitled to women’s bodies, and even if there were a few bad apples remaining, their days were numbered. Women would be able to speak up without fear of repercussions, and the dinosaurs would be dealt with swiftly.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, none of this happened in the end. A few scalps were taken and paraded around SW1 as proof that the problem had been solved. Slogans and pledges were shared on Twitter, then swiftly forgotten.

It isn’t even a generational issue, due to disappear organically as the old guard retires. The 2019 intake has been in parliament for less than two years, most of which time has been spent away from the palace, and already there are rumours swirling about several of them.

There is no single reason why none of them have been outed yet; some second-hand stories can be hard to stand up, some matters will be dealt with privately, and thorny legal issues can make reporting complicated.

Still, there is an elephant in the room, and it is that large swathes of the press are not trusted by young women when it comes to allegations of sexual misconduct in Westminster. Going public about a traumatic incident is tough enough as it is; having to worry about potential character assassination means many victims choose not to speak up.

To keep up to speed with all the latest opinions and comment sign up to our free weekly Voices newsletter by clicking here

Of course, one could reasonably argue that the press was never meant to be parliament’s sexual harassment ombudsman, and that political parties should learn to deal with their own problems. Sadly, that is not the world we currently live in, and if victims are failed by people in power, the media can and should step in. After all, isn’t holding politicians to account what Fleet Street supposedly does best?

Instead, stories of sexual harassment are often treated as titillating scoops, indulging in grim details and bordering on the voyeuristic. The victims’ motives will be questioned, and their past will be delved into in order to make the story murkier and more compelling.

Though most journalists are conscientious and take the issue seriously, all it takes is a casually malevolent minority to spoil it for everyone. As Nokes’s case shows, this minority is still hard at work, and its presence means that women who would otherwise speak up will now remain silent. This should shame us all.