Senior Tory MP Neil Parish, who is under investigation for watching porn in the Commons, has said that he would step down if he is found guilty of impropriety.
Speaking to reporters on Friday, the 65-year-old declined to elaborate on whether he'd watched pornography in the chamber, but when asked if he "opened something by error in the Commons", the MP for Tiverton and Honiton said he did.
Parish revealed that he had referred himself to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards Kathryn Stone, in what came 48 hours after two female Tory MPs said they witnessed the lawmaker watching pornography on his mobile phone on two separate occasions that purportedly took place in the Commons chamber and at a committee.
The 65-year-old, who has had the whip suspended, also wrote on his website that he would “be cooperating fully with any investigation, and whilst it is ongoing” he would “continue to perform” his duties as MP. He added that he would “not be making further comments at this stage”.
Apart from being probed by Kathryn Stone, Parish is also being investigated by the Independent Complaints and Grievances Scheme (ICGS), which one of the female MP witnesses referred him to.
The MP’s remarks come after Labour leader Keir Starmer urged Prime Minister Boris Johnson to take direct disciplinary action against Parish rather than rely on the potentially lengthy probe by the ICGS, which deals with sexual harassment and other disciplinary matters.
“This is an unusual case because the Tory party knows who this individual is. I think that they should deal with it, and deal with it sooner rather than later […]. They know who this is. They should take action now,” Starmer emphasised.
Johnson in turn underscored that “it's obviously unacceptable for anybody to be doing that kind of thing in the workplace”, adding that “clearly that kind of behaviour is totally unacceptable”.
At the same time, the PM called for the case to be investigated independently, saying, “what needs to happen now is that the proper procedures need to be gone through, the independent complaints and grievances procedure needs to be activated and we need to get to understand the facts”.
BoJo was echoed by an array of cabinet officials, with Efficiency Minister Jacob Rees-Mogg saying the case was "extraordinary and appalling" and Attorney General Suella Braverman suggested that if the allegations were proven, Parish could be suspended or even expelled from parliament.
Thangam Debbonaire, Labour's Shadow Leader of the House of Commons, for her part, lashed out at “the Conservatives” who “knew for days about the disgusting behaviour of one of their MPs and tried to cover it up”.
The MP’s wife Sue Parish has, meanwhile, told the Times that the accusations against her husband were “all very embarrassing”, and that her “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”, she added.
The woman described her husband as a “normal […] lovely person”, arguing that “if you were mad with every man who looked at pornography, you would not have many wives in the world”.