MP Gaurav Sharma continues campaign against Labour, Parliamentary Service

Newly independent MP Gaurav Sharma has shown Labour he will not be going quietly into the night.

The independent MP for Hamilton West has posted a 4700-word tome on social media, claiming to detail how useless some of his staff were and how he says Parliamentary Service, Labour, the whips and the Prime Minister’s office, all ignored his complaints about them and accused him of bullying instead.

Sharma, who was expelled from the Labour Party caucus last Tuesday, has so far been relatively quiet since his expulsion, attempting to speak once in Parliament.

His latest array of claims, which give his version of events in relation to his management of staff, was posted to social media on Monday evening. Written in narrative form, it tries to explain why Sharma felt hard done by, ignored and bullied.

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In it, Sharma declined to name anyone, instead giving his various staff members – who he says underperformed, lied, were drunk at work, displayed “incompetence in doing basic tasks” or dishonest – initials such as AB, CD, EF and so on.

Sharma’s post depicts a very bad run of luck with staff in his offices. On four separate occasions in the post, he mentioned he raised 66 issues he had with one staff member with Parliamentary Service and others.

“Why was there no independent investigation done despite me raising 66 issues with Parliamentary Services and with the Labour Whips?” he wrote.

He was also evidently cross a staff member which he says he shared with another (unnamed MP) was given time off in lieu, after he says, they had to do “household chores” for the other MP. He said the staff member then was not available to do work for him and “affected the ability of my constituents to get the right service”.

The post produced no documentary evidence to substantiate any of Sharma’s claims.

He also used the post to round more fully on Parliamentary Service, which he depicts as a woefully poor manager of people. Previously, Sharma accused Parliamentary Service of not investigating misuse of taxpayer money, a claim Parliamentary Service quickly rebutted as money spent on standard staff travel.

Parliamentary Service has been contacted for comment.

The latest of Sharma’s claims come as Parliament is set to resume for the week on Tuesday.

It is expected he could be given a slot at general debate on Wednesday to air his claims under the protection of Parliamentary privilege.

Labour has so far ruled out using waka-jumping legislation to force Sharma out of Parliament.

A spokesperson for the Prime Minister said the Prime Minister had nothing more to add about the situation.

Previously, Ardern has that the issue in Sharma’s office were because of his behaviour towards staff and that he refused mentoring or other measures to help improve his performance as an effective employer.

An earlier version of this story said Sharma could air his claims under the protection of “Parliamentary Service”. This has been corrected to “Parliamentary privilege”.