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Khalid Mahmood with parliamentary assistant and ex-lover Elaina Cohen (Image: Sunday Mercury/BPM MEDIA)
Shadow employment minister Khalid Mahmoud, 57, was taken to the tribunal by Elaina Cohen, 60, with whom he had a five-year relationship between 2003 and 2008, in 2016.
The case was eventually resolved out of court in 2017, with Ms Cohen signing a non-disclosure agreement as a condition of a settlement which also saw her return to work for him.
According to a Daily Telegraph investigation, Mr Mahmood’s costs were covered by an insurance policy funded by the parliamentary expenses system, which is available to all MPs.
In addition, he received nearly £40,000 in legal and staff costs from the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa).
Shadow employment minister Khalid Mahmoud, 57, was taken to the tribunal by Elaina Cohen, 60, with whom he had a five-year relationship between 2003 and 2008, in 2016.
The case was eventually resolved out of court in 2017, with Ms Cohen signing a non-disclosure agreement as a condition of a settlement which also saw her return to work for him.
According to a Daily Telegraph investigation, Mr Mahmood’s costs were covered by an insurance policy funded by the parliamentary expenses system, which is available to all MPs.
In addition, he received nearly £40,000 in legal and staff costs from the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa).
The row began two years ago when Mr Mahmood, MP for Birmingham Perry Barr, disciplined Ms Cohen, who is Jewish, after she clashed with Naz Shah, another Labour MP, on Twitter.
Ms Cohen had branded Ms Shah “anti-Zionist” in one of two critical tweets.
Ms Shah responding by reporting her to the police and accusing her of being “jealous” of Ms Shah’s contact with Mr Mahmood.
As a result, Mr Mahmood suspended Ms Cohen from her job as his Parliamentary assistant and launched an internal disciplinary process against her.
Jeremy Corbyn is under pressure over the way he has handled claims of Labour anti-Semitism (Image: GETTY)
Ms Shah was herself suspended by Labour over anti-Semitic Facebook posts.
Ms Cohen then returned to work after being exonerated, but discovered she had been effectively replaced.
As a result, she launched her religious discrimination case, which was settled the following year, and she returned to her job.
All Mr Mahmood’s costs are covered by employment practices liability insurance, which is paid by Ipsa, at a cost of £570 annually.
The episode was triggered by criticisms levelled against Naz Shah MP by Ms Cohen (Image: GETTY)
In addition he claimed £2,400 on legal expenses, as well as almost £28,845 from Ipsa in extra staffing costs to provide cover for Ms Cohen.
Furthermore, it was revealed that he actually spent almost £37,000 on cover, thus exceeding this amount by more than £8,000.
This additional money came in the form of an Ipsa contingency payment, but according to Ipsa rules, it should have been repaid within 30 days, and the Daily Telegraph said he had yet done so.
Mr Mahmood said Ipsa was “fully aware” the money was related to the discrimination case and the resultant need to hire two part-time workers to cover Ms Cohen’s duties.
Ms Cohen told the paper she was unable to discuss the details of her case, but added: I complained to Ipsa several times on the unfairness of substantial public funds being used.
“Ipsa should not be funding MPs in actions against their members of staff.”
Mr Mahmood said: “There was an agreement that was signed which forbids me to go into any details in relation to the case.”
The episode comes at a time when Labour is reeling from accusations of anti-Semitism, with leader Jeremy Corbyn under fire for his handling of the issue.
Express.co.uk has contacted Mr Mahmood’s office ask for a comment.
Ms Cohen told Express.co.uk: “I signed an NDA so unable to give details but all the information on the case from disciplinary and my return to work after being totally exonerated and subsequent tribunal is in the public domain.
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