Charlie Elphicke is guilty of sexual assault. We are one step closer to eradicating abuse of power in Westminster

Thanks to the courage and determination of the women he attacked, this week Charlie Elphicke was found guilty of three counts of sexual assault. This verdict is a huge victory for those of us who campaign to ensure that powerful men are held accountable for their actions and will hopefully make other perpetrators think twice before they abuse their power in future.

However, this victory is marred by the continued apathy and willingness to turn a blind eye shown by the mainstream political parties. In Elphicke’s case, as in many others, our political system closed ranks when allegations emerged and prioritised protecting their own over protecting women.

It should not be up to survivors to wear themselves down by exposing their trauma over and over again, just to make sure violence against women is taken seriously. It should be our institutions – and especially our political institutions – that put systems in place to deter violence and to hold perpetrators to account when violence does occur. But, shamefully, they are still failing to do so.

The Conservative Party first became aware of allegations against Elphicke in 2016 but the party did nothing about them for an entire year, until pressure from the #MeToo movement and publicity around the allegations forced its hand. Then, in 2018, the party took the shameful step of lifting Elphicke’s suspension so that he could take part in an important vote. Only when he was finally charged by police with three counts of sexual assault against two women did they decide to suspend him again. Incredibly though, the Dover Conservative Association still fought to support him as a 2019 general election candidate, even though he was on bail for assault at the time.

Between 2016 and 2019, the now-convicted sex offender was able to operate fully as an MP. In that role he was able to manage staff, just like the two he has been convicted of assaulting. He was able to visit schools and hospitals. He was able to vote on crucial legislation, including a vote on whether his own case should be subject to the new independent complaints procedure intended to deal with allegations against MPs and parliamentary staff. Now that he has been found guilty of sexual assault, we can surely agree that should never have been allowed to take place.

This shameful record on challenging allegations of abuses of power is not limited to the Conservative Party. The Labour Party still has not concluded a three-year, political investigation into allegations that Kelvin Hopkins repeatedly harassed a young party activist. Nor did they prevent now suspended MP Mike Bell from standing at the general election when he faced allegations of harassment. (Neither Bell nor Hopkins face allegations of a criminal nature.)

This is simply not good enough, so at last year’s general election the Women’s Equality Party fought a high profile campaign, standing survivors of rape, assault or abuse as candidates against MPs facing unresolved allegations of harassment, assault or violence. The four of us were those survivors. Together, we challenged Charlie Elphicke, Kelvin Hopkins, Ivan Lewis, Mark Field and Jared O’Mara, who each were accused of at least one of the above allegations. We could not be prouder that none of these men returned to parliament. Elphicke resigned before the vote, as did three of his colleagues, while Lewis lost his seat on election night. But it should never have been left up to Elphicke to make the decision to resign.

Every single party leader owes the public answers on what they will do to prevent perpetrators of abuse and violence from standing for public office, and parliament must strengthen procedures to guarantee men facing these kinds of allegations cannot continue to operate as MPs. We are calling on all party leaders to agree that candidates facing unresolved allegations of sexual harassment or assault are ineligible to stand for election. Meanwhile, any representative who has been found guilty of sexual crimes by a court or an independent parliamentary investigation should be eligible for recall by their constituents regardless of the sentence they receive.

Survivors are tired of shouting about sexual assault. We are tired of standing against men like Elphicke because no one else is prepared to take a stand. So we are calling on Boris Johnson, Keir Starmer and all the other party leaders to do the right thing, and fight this battle alongside us.

Eljai Morais, Gemma Evans, Serena Laidley and Jenn Selby are Women’s Equality Party general election candidates