The Conservative MP Neil Parish with his wife, Sue.
Tory MP Neil Parish faces investigation over
claims of watching pornography in Commons
Spokesperson for chief whip said Parish was reporting
himself to the parliamentary authorities over the allegations
Ben Quinn,
Heather Stewart and Rowena Mason
Fri 29 Apr
2022 19.01 BST
A senior
Conservative MP is under investigation for watching pornography in the House of
Commons after furious female colleagues forced government whips to act.
Neil
Parish, the MP for Tiverton and Honiton, had the whip suspended after becoming
the fourth MP from his party since the last election to face claims of
impropriety.
Parish
revealed he had referred himself to the standards commissioner on Friday
afternoon after senior Tory women expressed outrage at the party for failing to
act on complaints made earlier this week despite being aware of his identity.
In a
statement, the 65-year-old MP said he would be “cooperating fully with any
investigation”. He later told reporters that he may have accidentally opened a
pornographic video in the Commons and said he will quit as an MP if found
guilty.
The Tory
whips had refused to suspend the party whip for more than 48 hours after a
female minister and parliamentary aide identified Parish on Tuesday night as
the MP they allegedly saw watching pornography in the chamber.
The whips
suggested the female MPs should instead make complaints to the parliamentary
watchdog, the Independent Complaints and Grievance Service (ICGS), which is now
also investigating.
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Sue Parish,
the MP’s wife, told the Times the accusations were “all very embarrassing”,
adding: “My breath was taken away, frankly.
“People
shouldn’t be looking at pornography. He would never just sit there with people
looking. He would never just do that knowing [people were looking]. These
ladies were quite right to be as [upset] as they were.
Describing
her husband as a “normal … lovely person”, she added: “If you were mad with
every man who looked at pornography, you would not have many wives in the
world.
“It’s
degrading. It’s demeaning. But on the other hand it takes two to tango. There
must be women posing for all this.
When asked
what the accusations could mean for her husband’s career, she replied: “I’ve
got no idea. It depends on what Chris Heaton-Harris [the Tory chief whip] says,
I suppose. I don’t think it’s going to carry on, is it? It’s so stupid. He’s
such a good MP. He’s such a good person.”
Labour
accused the Tory whips of trying to “cover up” for Parish before they
ultimately took the decision to withdraw the whip on Friday.
If found to
have brought the Commons into disrepute, Parish could be sanctioned and ultimately
face the possibility of a recall petition, potentially triggering a byelection,
if suspended from parliament for more than 10 days.
He could
also face similar penalties through the ICGS, which can look at cases of sexual
harassment. The House of Commons would need to authorise the most severe
sanctions of suspension or expulsion.
With dismay
among female MPs about the scale of sexism and misogyny in parliament, Boris
Johnson is now facing calls from women within his party to take their concerns more
seriously. One Conservative peer described a “toxic mix of stress, and booze
and testosterone and power” that was difficult to tackle.
It comes
less than a week after the whips said they would take steps to identify which
anonymous Tory MP was responsible for accusing Angela Rayner, the deputy Labour
leader, of crossing and uncrossing her legs in parliament in order to distract
him. The story in the Mail on Sunday prompted widespread anger.
One Tory MP
and former cabinet minister said she thought Parish should have been “suspended
with immediate effect” and referred to the standards system by the whips,
adding that she had personally urged them to do so.
Another
Conservative MP described the reaction of the whips as “useless” and said their
inadequate response was typical of their failure to take women in the party
seriously. They also said a culture of failing to tackle misogyny had “come
from the top” and was ultimately the responsibility of the prime minister.
Harriet
Harman told the BBC Radio 4 PM programme that Parish should stand down as an
MP. “This marks a new low for the House of Commons,” the senior Labour MP said.
“If this is what he has done, he should stand down from parliament right away.
It is not right for him to go through the investigation processes if that is
what he has done. Clearly he is not fit to be in parliament. He should accept
that and not drag the processes out.”
Johnson had
responded to the alleged porn-watching by saying it was “obviously unacceptable
for anybody to be doing that kind of thing in the workplace”.
A
spokesperson for the chief whip, Chris Heaton-Harris, said Parish was reporting
himself to the parliamentary authorities. “Mr Parish has been suspended from
the Conservative whip pending the outcome of that investigation,” the
spokesperson said.
The
standards commissioner, Kathryn Stone, can investigate whether MPs have
complied with the House of Commons code of conduct. Paragraph 15 of the code
says MPs must “conduct themselves in a manner which will tend to maintain and
strengthen the public’s trust and confidence in the integrity of parliament and
never undertake any action which would bring the House of Commons, or its
members generally, into disrepute”.
Parish has
held the safe Conservative seat of Tiverton and Honiton, in Devon, since 2010,
winning it with a huge majority of 24,239 in 2019.
He is the
chair of the environment, food and rural affairs select committee and is known
at Westminster as a champion for animals and farming, quizzing ministers in
recent Commons appearances about fertiliser prices and greyhound racing.
Thangam
Debbonaire, Labour’s shadow Leader of the House of Commons, said: “The
Conservatives knew for days about the disgusting behaviour of one of their MPs
and tried to cover it up. From the Owen Paterson scandal to their failure to
act against their paedophile MP Imran Ahmad Khan, this is a government rotting
from the head down. Britain deserves better.”
Before
Parish’s name emerged, several Conservative MPs, including Nickie Aiken and
Simon Hoare, had called on the unnamed MP accused of watching pornography to
resign rather than risk others being wrongly named.
Anne
Jenkin, the peer and co-founder of the Women2Win group trying to get more Tory
women into politics, said she thought women would not be put off by incidents
of sexual misconduct but it would “makes them angry and angry is good in this
space because it’s more likely for women to say, well I’ve got to go into
politics to get rid of this stuff”.
She added:
“It’s a toxic mix of stress, and booze and testosterone and power that makes it
so difficult. And I don’t know what the solution is because you can’t do
anything about testosterone and you can’t do much about the stress of it, and
the power is inevitable. You can do something about the booze.
“I mind
about values and I think there’s a lot of Conservatives who are extremely
embarrassed by what is going on.”
Parish gave
an interview to GB News this week in which he was asked about allegations of a
then-unidentified Tory MP watching pornography in the Commons.
'You are
going to get people that step over the line.'
“I think
the whips’ office will do a thorough investigation and we will wait and see
that result and from that, then the decision will have to be made what action
will be taken,” he said.
Pressed on
whether there was a problem with the culture at Westminster, Parish said:
“We’ve got some 650 members of parliament in what is a very intense area. You
are going to get people who step over the line.” He added: “It does have to be
dealt with and dealt with seriously.”
The allegations
emerged when female Conservative MPs calling themselves the 2022 group gathered
in Westminster to share experiences of misogyny and sexism.
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