Labour MP suspended from party pending investigation

Labour MP Conor McGinn has been suspended from the party pending an investigation, the BBC has been told.

Mr McGinn, who has represented the St Helens North constituency since 2015, will now sit as an independent MP.

He has previously served as an opposition whip, shadow Home Office minister and the party’s deputy national campaign co-ordinator.

Details of the nature of the investigation into the MP have not yet been confirmed.

Mr McGinn is the latest Labour MP to be suspended under the party’s new complaints process.

The system was set up last year in the wake of controversy over how anti-Semitism allegations were handled.

A 2020 Equalities and Human Rights Commission report into how the claims were handled recommended that the party put in place “long-term arrangements for independent oversight of the complaint handling process”.

Party members backed creating this new system at its annual conference in 2021.

Under the rules, Mr McGinn’s suspension from Labour Party membership will lead to automatic precautionary suspension from the Parliamentary Labour Party.