PROSECUTORS have charged former Labour MP Conor McGinn with one count of sexual assault following a police investigation into an alleged incident in July 2022.
The Crown Prosecution Service said it had decided to bring the charge after reviewing evidence gathered by police. No further details of the alleged incident have been released at this stage.
A CPS spokesperson said prosecutors had concluded there was “sufficient evidence to bring this charge to court” and that it was in the public interest to do so.
The CPS stressed that criminal proceedings are active and that Conor McGinn is entitled to a fair trial.
McGinn, 41, was suspended from the Labour Party in 2022 after a formal complaint was made against him. He subsequently sat as an independent MP before standing down from Parliament at the 2024 general election.
Originally from Camlough in County Armagh, Conor Patrick McGinn was first elected to Westminster in 2015 as MP for St Helens North. During his time in Parliament, he was a prominent voice on Irish issues, particularly Brexit and Northern Ireland, and served as Labour’s shadow secretary of state for Northern Ireland from 2020 to 2021.
Before entering politics, McGinn worked as a political adviser and campaigner, including roles linked to Labour’s Irish and diaspora engagement. He was regarded as a close ally of the party’s leadership during the Brexit years, frequently intervening on matters affecting the Good Friday Agreement.
Mr McGinn has previously said he denies the allegation. At the time of his suspension, he told The Guardian that he had not been informed of the details of the complaint but was “confident that it is entirely unfounded” and rejected “any suggestion of wrongdoing”.
The former MP is married and has a son and a daughter.
Featured image by Malcolm McNally Photography