Workers' Party looking into video of 'inappropriate exchange' between Leon Perera and Nicole Seah

SINGAPORE: The opposition Workers’ Party (WP) on Monday (Jul 17) said it is looking into a video suggesting an "inappropriate exchange" between senior party members Leon Perera and Nicole Seah.

The 15-second clip, uploaded to social media, appears to show Mr Perera - a Member of Parliament for Aljunied - dining with 2020 general election candidate Ms Seah, while holding and stroking her hands.

Both are married and sit on the WP's central executive committee, with Mr Perera heading the media team while Ms Seah is the youth wing president.

WP said it is aware of the video circulating online on Monday.

"The party is currently looking into the matter and will comment when we have the facts," it said in a statement. "The party also expects all its members to fully own and account for their behaviour."

Mr Perera, who turns 53 this year, first emerged onto Singapore's political landscape when he ran as a candidate for East Coast during the 2015 general election. He subsequently became a Non-Constituency MP, before joining the WP's winning slate for its Aljunied stronghold at the 2020 polls.

Prior to politics, he was a civil servant and later co-founder and chief executive officer of a business research and consulting agency. An archived online version of a 2015 WP biography of Mr Perera states that he has a daughter and a son, with a wife named Carol in previous media reports.

Ms Seah, 36, joined the WP in 2015 after stints with the Reform Party and National Solidarity Party. She shot to online fame as the youngest female candidate at the 2011 general election, and went on a hiatus before returning as a WP candidate for East Coast at the 2020 polls. 

She and her husband Bryan had their second daughter in April last year. Ms Seah was last reported in 2020 to be working at a multinational marketing firm.