Earlier this week (October 23), libertarian political blog, Guido Fawkes, published online comments made by Labour MP, Jared O'Mara. These comments included a request for the members of UK pop group Girls Aloud to perform sexual acts with him. He also suggested that it would be "quite funny" if jazz star Jamie Cullum were sodomised with his own trumpet, that "fatties" don't deserve respect and referred to Arctic Monkeys fans as "s*xy little s**gs".

More comments were subsequently unearthed on a Morrissey fansite which features a lengthy tirade during which O'Mara equates homophobia to the problems faced by those with ginger hair, along with a string of extreme homophobic slurs, and accusing the site of being "rife with heterophobia." Further racist comments from the same period have also since been found.

Why is action being taken now?

These comments were made between 2002 and 2004 and led to O'Mara removing himself from the Women and Equalities Select Committee, which he had been a member of since being elected to Parliament. While an investigation began immediately, he was not suspended until today (October 25), due to the surfacing of yet another misogynistic outburst.

The most recent allegations involve an incident that took place in a Sheffield nightclub in March, just three months before O'Mara unseated the former leader of the Liberal Democrats, Nick Clegg, in the general election. O'Mara allegedly verbally abused Sophie Evans, a woman who he met through a dating app. He apparently called her an "ugly b***h" amongst other slurs.

What happens now?

O'Mara has apologized for the comments made online, stating that he was going through a particularly difficult time when he made them, but vehemently denies what happened in the encounter described by Sophie Evans.

There has been wide criticism of the misogynistic and abusive language used by O'Mara from both sides of the political spectrum, though some, like Conservative MP, Mims Davies, have asked why it has taken so long for an official suspension to be handed down.

However, given the damage was already done to both O'Mara and the party's reputations since these revelations, it seems unlikely that O'Mara will have a mandate for continued public service following the investigation. Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, has been unequivocal in his condemnation that such attitudes and behavior will not be tolerated in the Labour Party.