One of Reform UK’s leading elected officials is under police investigation for allegedly showing “naked and sexualised” images of himself to a female member his staff, as first reported by The Observer.
Luke Campbell, the mayor of the Hull and East Yorkshire combined authority was “questioned under caution” by police in relation to the allegation earlier this month.
Before beginning his political career with the Reform party, Campbell was best known for boxing, having won a gold medal at the 2012 London Olympic Games.
According to The Observer, Campbell allegedly: “Showed a senior female colleague four fully naked and sexualised images of himself in May.”
The woman is reported to have felt “shocked, embarrassed and humiliated” by the alleged incident, and she has claimed to have been “forced out of her job” afterwards, with this claim backed by documents submitted as part of an internal grievance procedure at Hull and East Yorkshire combined authority (Heyca), cited in the Observer report.
While Campbell is yet to issue a formal response, the Reform party have said he “firmly denies” the allegations.
The mayor has not been arrested in relation to the allegations.
A Reform UK spokesperson said: “Luke firmly denies the allegations. They come from a disgruntled employee attempting to leverage a settlement in a meritless workplace dispute.”
One of the main figures to come out in Campbell’s defence has been former Tory minister Nadine Dorries.
She said the “sexualised” image was in fact a 2013 magazine cover showing the former boxer posing naked from the waist up, however the Observer report says that details, and witness testimony, within the Heyca internal grievance documents contradict this claim.
Per the report: “In one document, corroborated by the Guardian, a senior female colleague said Campbell had called her over to a computer screen, where she was shown ‘several naked and sexualised images’ of the mayor.”
Another witness said they saw an image showing a naked individual with a tattoo, and the aforementioned magazine cover shows no such tattoo.
In a statement, the main complainant said: “I was deliberately exposed to naked and sexualised images involving the mayor in the workplace, without my consent, and was laughed at when I was visibly embarrassed.
“In my view, this was unwanted conduct of a sexual nature which violated my dignity and created a humiliating, degrading and offensive working environment.”
A spokesperson for Heyca has confirmed a police investigation is underway.
They said: “As with all public authorities, the combined authority has a standards process that can be engaged to deal with complaints about members and a complaints procedure that can be used to deal with complaints about officers.
“The standards process and the complaints procedure must be carried out in a fair and independent manner.”