Kate Osamor

In January 2016 Osamor was accused of hypocrisy for advertising an unpaid internship which paid expenses only. The job listing to assist Osamor in her constituency required degree-level qualifications and "commitment to the full duration of the role", though was also described as voluntary. Tanya de Grunwald, a campaigner for fair internships, criticised the MP, stating: "You can't claim to care about social mobility and diversity and still rely on unpaid interns, it's as simple as that". Due to an negative reaction to the story, Osamor withdrew the advert, claiming it had been a "misunderstanding".[27][28]

Osamor was re-elected as MP for Edmonton in the 2017 General Election. She was subsequently accused of plagiarising large sections of her victory address from Barack Obama's 2008 victory address in his home town of Chicago. According to Osamor's explanation she "deliberately invoked a victory speech so famous that she thought it needed no introduction".[29]

In October 2018, it emerged that Osamor continued to employ her son, Ishmael Osamor, as a senior communications officer in her Parliamentary office despite his convictions for three counts of possession of class A controlled drugs with intent to supply and one of possession. He had been arrested for this offence over a year previously after being caught with £2,500 worth of the illegal drugs (cocaine, ecstasy, ketamine and cannabis), at the Bestival music festival in August 2017. After disclosure of his conviction, he resigned his cabinet seat and, after pressure from the opposition, his seat as a councillor for Haringey Council.[30] On 1 November 2018, Conservative MP Anne-Marie Trevelyan referred Osamor to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards stating her "failure to uphold" the MPs code of conduct, with regards to her son's continued employment.[31] Osamor denied any wrongdoing and called the referral "politically motivated".[31]

The Labour Party claimed that Osamor, who lives and works with her son, knew nothing about his case until his sentencing on 26 October, but it later emerged that she had known about it earlier and had written to the trial judge asking for leniency before his sentencing on 19 October. In response, Conservative MP Priti Patel stated: "Serious questions must be asked about whether she has misled the public in her account so far of what she knew and when she knew it."[32] Patel also called for an investigation by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, both regarding allegedly misleading the public and the continued employment of Osamor's son.

Upon being questioned on her doorstep by The Times reporter Will Humphries about whether she had misled the public over the extent of her knowledge of her son's court case, Osamor threw a bucket of water at Humphries and shouted "Fuck off!" and "I should have come down here with a bat and smashed your face in."[33] She then called the police emergency service to report him for stalking her, calling the police emergency service again the following night in relation to the presence of another reporter.[34][35][36] Michelle Stanistreet, General Secretary of the National Union of Journalists, said: "Journalists, like any other workers, need to be able to go about their work without fear of threats or assault. It’s completely unacceptable to respond to legitimate press queries, however unwelcome they may be, with physical or verbal abuse."[37]

On 1 December 2018, Osamor resigned from the Shadow Cabinet, stating she needed "to concentrate on supporting my family through the difficult time we have been experiencing".[38] Ten days later, she tweeted that she was "deeply sorry for (her) emotional outbursts and ... working to better manage (her) feelings".[39] In January 2019, she faced further criticism when it was revealed that she used official parliamentary stationery and referenced her shadow cabinet position in writing to the judge to appeal for clemency in the sentencing of her son.[40]

On 19 March 2020, an inquiry into the matter by the House of Commons' commissioner for standards found Osamor guilty of two breaches of Parliamentary rules in relation to the matters. The first breach was Osamor's use of official House of Commons paper for the reference she wrote for her son, the second breach concerned her abuse and assault of the Times journalist at her home. In her defence, the MP claimed that she felt "the target of a witch-hunt, and that race and class were factors". She was ordered to write a written apology for her actions.[41]

In October 2019, it was announced that Osamor was to face re-selection as the Labour Party candidate at the next General Election. Some local Labour party members are said to have been dissatisfied with her selection as candidate in 2015.[42] This, along with other reselection processes, was cancelled after Labour decided to support a general election.[43]

In March 2020, the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards published a report on their investigation into Osamor, focusing on her misuse of House of Commons stationery to provide a character reference for her son Ishmael Osamor, during his trial for a criminal matter. Subsequently, the commissioner has also investigated a separate incident surrounding her use of threatening language to a journalist.[44]

In a letter dated 8 October 2018, Osamor wrote to the Courts of Justice, Bournemouth, to provide a character reference for her son. The letter was hand-delivered at the court and was written on House of Commons stationery bearing the crowned portcullis, the royal badge used as an emblem by the House of Commons. In the letter Osamor referred to herself as the "Member of Parliament for Edmonton and Shadow Secretary of State for International Development".[45]

The Commissioner noted that “the use of House of Commons paper wrongly suggested that her plea carried the authority of the House”. She comments that the tone of any character reference for a constituent would be different from that which Ms Osamor used to plead her son's cause. The Commissioner concludes that “writing, in the terms that she did, on stationery bearing the royal badge was, in my view, highly inappropriate”. She therefore finds that in writing to the judge on House-provided stationery, Ms Osamor broke the rules on the use of such stationery, in breach of paragraph 16 of the Code of Conduct.[46] Osamor has accepted that she broke the rules on the use of House-provided stationery, and has apologised to the Commissioner.[47]

On the second matter: on 30 November 2018, police officers had attended Osamor's home after a call from Osamor stating "a man claiming to be a journalist was banging on the door intimidating her and her family". Osamor conceded to the Commissioner she had been at home alone at the time.[48]

Based on body worn video evidence provided by the police, the Commissioner established that Osamor had said “Don’t knock my fucking door. I should have come down here with a fucking bat and smashed your face open” to the journalist in the presence of the attending police officers. The Commissioner concluded that such behaviour was unacceptable.[49]

The Commissioner's overall finding was that Osamor's actions in writing to the court using House-provided stationery, in speaking as she did to the journalist, and in failing to respond to correspondence from the Commissioner, taken separately and together, were found to be a breach of paragraph 17 of the Code of Conduct.[50]