One of Sir Keir Starmer’s most senior advisers made sexually explicit and offensive remarks about veteran MP Diane Abbott, ITV News can reveal.
Messages seen by ITV News show Paul Ovenden, who served as the Director of Strategy in Downing Street and was one of a handful of top aides in Number 10, admitting to discussing Ms Abbott in derogatory sexual terms with Labour colleagues in 2017.
In light of the messages revealed by ITV News, Mr Ovenden has resigned from his role at Number 10.
Mr Ovenden, who earned between £115,000 and £120,000 a year, recalled having played a more explicit version of the game of ‘snog, marry, avoid’ with Labour Party colleagues the previous day, saying, “I nearly wet myself from laughing.”
In the exchange, which took place on the Labour Party’s internal instant messaging system, Mr Ovenden recounted a conversation involving a sex toy and multiple sex acts directed at Ms Abbott, which he himself described as “outrageous”.
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The prime minister dismissed Mandelson last week after emails surfaced revealing the peer’s correspondence with Epstein, despite having publicly defended him at Prime Minister’s Questions just a day earlier.
Christian Brueckner, the prime suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, has refused to be interviewed by British police, as a former associate said he is "100% sure" the German national was involved in her kidnapping.
Brueckner is currently serving a seven-year prison sentence in Germany for the rape of an elderly woman at her home in Praia da Luz in 2005 and could potentially be released on Wednesday.
Fugitive aristocrat Constance Marten and her convicted rapist partner Mark Gordon have been jailed for 14 years at the Old Bailey for the manslaughter of their baby Victoria.
Marten, 38, and Gordon, 51, were found guilty of manslaughter, child cruelty, concealing the birth of a child and perverting the course of justice following two trials spanning six months each.
Mark Gordon will serve a further 4 years on extended licence.
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