By Ben Kerrigan-
Parliament’s behavior watchdog has recommended a six-week suspension for Conservative MP Peter Bone, following allegations of bullying and sexual misconduct that date back over a decade.
The recommendation from Parliament’s Independent Expert Panel (IEP) comes in response to a complaint lodged by a former staff member who accused Mr. Bone of engaging in abusive and inappropriate behavior during an overseas trip more than a decade ago.
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If approved by the House of Commons, this suspension could trigger a recall petition, potentially leading to a by-election in Mr. Bone’s Wellingborough constituency.
The panel’s report, published on Monday concluded Bone had “verbally belittled, ridiculed, abused and humiliated” the unnamed employee. It said the veteran MP “repeatedly physically struck and threw things” at him.
Bone issued a statement after the publication, saying: “None of the misconduct allegations against me ever took place. They are false and untrue claims.”
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The former staff member, who chose to remain anonymous, expressed “a sense of relief and vindication” after the IEP’s findings were made public.
He revealed that the traumatic experience continued to affect his life to this day.” He had also appealed the IEP’s findings but saw his appeal dismissed by a sub-panel, which declared the investigation was conducted correctly.
The IEP’s report detailed various allegations against Mr. Bone, including indecent exposure and a pattern of bullying behavior, such as instructing, physically forcing, belittling, ridiculing, abusing, and humiliating the complainant, as well as physically assaulting him.
One particularly troubling allegation was that Mr. Bone repeatedly pressured the staffer to give him a massage in the office, deemed bullying but not sexual misconduct.
The 70-year-old Wellingborough MP, who has vehemently denied all the allegations, was said to have exposed his genitals to the employee, then in his early 20s, while the pair were sharing a hotel room during a trip to the Spanish capital with the all-party parliamentary group on human trafficking in 2013.
It was part of a “pattern of inappropriate behaviour” that also involved pressuring the staffer to give him massages in his office, according to a report from Parliament’s Independent Expert Panel (IEP).
The Mp had also appealed the IEP’s findings but saw his appeal dismissed by a sub-panel, which declared the investigation was conducted correctly.
The IEP’s report suggests that the Tory party’s internal investigation had made little progress. The formal investigation began in August 2022, and the staffer withdrew the complaint from the party to avoid running two inquiries in parallel.
The Conservative Party stated that it had initiated an investigation into the complaint but cited the complainant’s withdrawal as the reason it was not heard.
In response to the situation, the complainant called for all political parties, including the Conservatives, to review their complaints procedures with full independent oversight, stating, “It should not take five years for a complaint to be processed.”
This incident is the latest in a string of allegations of misconduct within Parliament, highlighting the urgent need for more robust mechanisms to address such issues promptly and effectively.
The House of Commons will soon face a crucial decision in determining the fate of Mr. Bone, which will undoubtedly have lasting implications for the way these matters are handled within the political sphere.
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