British lawmaker arrested after rape allegation

LONDON: An unnamed British lawmaker and former minister was arrested on Saturday after police received allegations of rape, sexual assault and coercive control, the Sunday Times reported. A woman in her twenties reported to police she had been assaulted and forced to have sex, the newspaper reported. The woman was a former parliamentary employee, it said. London’s Metropolitan Police said it had received on Friday allegations relating to four separate incidents between July 2019 and January 2020. “A man in his 50s was arrested on Saturday, 1 August on suspicion of rape,” the police statement said. Late on Saturday, the police said the lawmaker had been released on bail after being held in custody in an east London police station, and that he was to return in the middle of this month.