The Sound of Silence: Jonathan Brash’s Quiet Ambition Amid Hartlepool’s Turbulent Past

The Labour MP for Hartlepool claims It’s time to call out the social media keyboard warriors who seem voyeuristically obsessed with certain politicians, especially those being vocal over a new law that will require employers to take "reasonable steps" to prevent staff from being sexually harassed at work...

But just how vocal was Mr Brash during the Mike Hill Sexual Assault Scandal ?

30th March 2025

Hartlepool’s newly minted MP, Jonathan Brash, barely a year into his role has wasted no time in positioning himself as a vocal champion for the town.

In his most recent Local Newspaper blog post titled "It's time to call them out" (March 26, 2025), Brash takes aim at unnamed detractors, decrying those who “slag off our town” and pledging to fight for its pride and prosperity.

It’s a stirring call to arms, dripping with local loyalty and indignation. Yet, for all his righteous noise, there’s a deafening silence on a matter that once rocked Hartlepool Labours political foundations: the Mike Hill sexual assault scandal. As Brash climbed the Labour Party ladder—eyeing a parliamentary seat even as Dr. Paul Williams carried the party’s banner in 2021—his reticence on this dark chapter raises questions about his priorities and integrity.

Former Hartlepool Labour MP Mike Hill resigned in March 2021 after allegations of Sexual Assault against one of his members of staff were raised....

Mike Hill, Hartlepool’s Labour MP from 2017 to 2021, resigned abruptly in March 2021, triggering a by-election that saw the Conservatives snatch the seat for the very first time. His exit wasn’t a noble retirement but a hurried escape from a storm of allegations that Labour North had been trying to brush under the carpet.

An Independent Parliamentary Expert Panel eventually found Hill breached Parliament’s sexual misconduct policy, with evidence of inappropriate behaviour toward a female staffer in both private and parliamentary settings. A subsequent employment tribunal in 2022 ruled that Hill had sexually harassed and victimised the woman—known only as Ms. A, with the Tribunal awarding her a staggering £434,000 in damages. Hill’s actions weren’t just a personal failing; they shattered trust in Hartlepool’s Labour representation and left a stain on the town’s political legacy that's reportedly still felt to this very day...

Dr Paul Williams was hastily selected as the Labour Candidate to replace Mike Hill in a by-election, however its claimed by this time Jonathan Brash was eyeing up the seat for himself ...

Enter Jonathan Brash, a local councillor with deep roots in Hartlepool, who by 2021 was already said to be eyeing up the parliamentary prize. When Hill stepped down, Labour swiftly & controversially selected Dr. Paul Williams, a former Stockton South MP and NHS doctor, to contest the May 2021 by-election. Williams, despite his credentials, lost the election race spectacularly to Conservative Candidate Jill Mortimer by nearly 7,000 votes—a humiliating blow to Labour’s “Red Wall” stronghold.

Meanwhile, Brash, a Burn Valley ward councillor since 2006 (with a brief hiatus), stayed on the side-lines during that contest. Yet his parliamentary ambition was said to be 'brewing'.

By June 2023, as reported by another North East Newspaper, Brash had secured Labour’s candidacy for the 2024 general election, a stepping stone to his eventual victory last July, reclaiming the seat with a 7,698-vote majority.

Mr Brash, pictured with Hartlepool Councillor Rachael Creevey (Left) on the day he was elected as MP

What’s troubling is Brash’s apparent unwillingness ever to address the Mike Hill scandal head-on—either during his rise or now as MP. In his Hartlepool Mail piece, he rails against those who allegedly “snipe from the side-lines” and promises to “call out” negativity. But where was this fire when it came to reckoning with Mike Hill’s disgrace?

The scandal wasn’t a minor footnote either; it was a seismic event that cost Labour the parliamentary seat in Hartlepool and exposed a major failure of accountability within the Labour Party itself. Brash, a self-proclaimed son of Hartlepool, could have used his platform—then as a councillor, & now as MP—to demand transparency, support victims, or at least acknowledge the betrayal of public trust that Labour had caused to its victims. Instead, we get silence, broken only by vague platitudes by the towns MP about “standing up for our town.”

This isn’t just about historical baggage. Brash’s quiet ascent through Labours 'good books' during the 2021 by-election hints at a calculated strategy. Whilst Williams took the fall in a bruising campaign—criticised for his pro-EU stance in a nearly 70% Brexit-backing constituency—Brash kept his powder dry, avoiding the fray. Was he merely biding his time, letting Williams absorb the Tory onslaught, only to swoop in later when the political winds shifted? It’s certainly not hard to see the political opportunism in his trajectory. Labour’s rapid selection of Williams in 2021 was slammed as a “stitch-up” by some party insiders, side-lining local voices. Brash, a seasoned local figure, could have challenged that process or formally offered himself as a candidate back then, rather than waiting for a safer shot in 2024.

His silence on Mike Hill also contrasts sharply with his current rhetoric. In his blog, Brash waxes poetic about Hartlepool’s resilience, vowing to tackle “those who have sought to do us down.” Yet the Mike Hill saga was a homegrown wound—inflicted not by outsiders but by one of Labour’s own.

If Brash truly believes in calling out harm, why didn't he simply start with the elephant in the room? Victims like Ms. A deserve more than a footnote in Hartlepool’s story; they deserve a voice from their MP. Instead, Brash’s focus seems laser-locked on future promises—jobs, NHS reform, council tax fairness—whilst sidestepping Labour's messy past that rather ironically, paved his path to Westminster.

Brash wasn’t never implicated in any of Mike Hill’s actions, and as a councillor back in 2021, he may have perhaps felt that it wasn’t his place to wade in. But as someone who’s built his brand on Hartlepool’s pride and his family’s service (his father’s decades as a local GP are a frequent touchstone), his refusal to grapple with this scandal when he was a prominent local Labour Councillor feels like a dodge. Leadership isn’t just about picking fights with faceless critics; it’s about facing the uncomfortable truths within your own camp. Mike Hill’s fall wasn’t just a personal implosion—it was a failure of Labour’s vetting and culture, issues Brash could address now as MP to ensure they don’t repeat.

Hartlepool deserves an MP who doesn’t just trumpet its virtues but reckons with its scars. Brash’s victory in 2024 was never a triumph of persistence and local goodwill, but merely down to sheer 'good luck' in the face of a disgruntled electorate, but his silence on Mike Hill—and his quiet climb whilst Dr Williams faltered—casts a shadow over his moral clarity. If he’s really serious about calling out those who supposedly 'harm the town', he might start by looking a little closer to home. Perhaps maybe a councillor who was elected under a Labour Party banner, only to be kicked out months later after sexual assault allegations were raised about him....

The Skeletons in Labours closet haven't been entirely 'cleaned out'.....

Until then, his words ring hollow, drowned out by the silence he’s chosen to take over the Many Skeletons still lingering within Labours Closet !