By Ben Kerrigan-
Embarrassed MP Neil Parish, who is under investigation for allegedly watching pornography in the House of Commons has claimed he may have opened it on his phone by mistake.
The MP for Tiverton and Honiton in Devon, 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 Conservative party for failing to act on complaints made earlier this week, despite being aware of his identity.
Refusing to resign as an MP or as head of the environment select committee until the inquiry concludes, the 65-year-old wrote on his website: “I will be cooperating fully with any investigation, and whilst it is ongoing I will continue to perform my duties as MP for Tiverton and Honiton.”
Asked later by broadcasters if he had opened something in error in the Commons, he said: “I did, but let the inquiry look at that.”
Two female colleagues complained after claiming to have seen him looking at adult content while sitting near them.
Mr Parish has been suspended from the Conservative parliamentary party, pending the outcome of the investigation by Parliament’s standards commissioner Kathryn Stone.
If she finds that he has violated the code of conduct for MPs, possible punishments range from having to apologise to the Commons to suspension or expulsion.
Mr Parish told the BBC he would co-operate fully with the inquiry and would await the outcome before commenting.
“Of course it’s embarrassing,” he said. “And it’s embarrassing for my wife and family, and so that’s my main concern at the moment. I have a very supportive wife and I thank her for that.”
Sue, his wife of 40 years who works as his secretary, indicated on Friday that she will stand by him. ‘If you were mad with every man who looked at pornography, you would not have many wives in the world,’ she said.
Mr Parish admitted that following reports naming him as the MP in question, he was unable to contact his wife because his phone battery was flat.
By the time he arrived home from a constituency surgery, Mrs Parish had already learned the news. Having reached their red-brick farmhouse in Stretcholt near Bridgwater, Somerset, Mr Parish broke down in tears and told her: ‘I’m sorry you married a f****** idiot.
Addressing reporters yesterday, Mr Parish said: ‘I have to apologise to my wife more than anybody for putting her through all of this.’
Adding that he understood the upset he had caused more widely, he nevertheless stressed that he would ‘carry on doing my duties as MP for Tiverton and Honiton’ with the ‘full support of my wonderful wife’.
Mrs Parish admitted the incident was ‘all very embarrassing’ but said it would be ‘a bit stupid’ to let it come between them. ‘I don’t understand [the attraction of] it. I’m a woman… it’s degrading. It’s demeaning. But on the other hand it takes two to tango. There must be women posing for all this,’ she told The Times.
Mr Parish, who himself gave a TV interview earlier this week calling for the man in question to be ‘dealt with seriously’, said in response to questions as to why he didn’t identify himself sooner: ‘I wasn’t going to until such time as I had referred myself to the authorities. I will not remain if I am found guilty [by the Committee on Standards].’
On a very difficult day for the reputation of Mps, International Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan revealed she had in the past been pinned to a wall by a male Mp, adding that many Mps felt they were God’s gift to women because they had been voted in to serve their constituents.
She urged colleagues to ‘keep your hands in your pockets’ as she complained about sexism in Parliament, telling LBC Radio: ‘I’ve witnessed and been at the sharp end of misogyny from some colleagues many times over.
‘We might describe it as wandering hands, if you like, we might describe it as, you know, a number of years ago being pinned up against a wall by a male MP – who is now no longer in the House, I’m pleased to say – declaring that I must want him because he was a powerful man. These sorts of things, these power abuses, that a very small minority, thank goodness, of male colleagues show is completely unacceptable.’
She said most of her male colleagues are ‘delightful’ and ‘committed parliamentarians’, but added: ‘There are a few for whom too much drink, or indeed a sort of a view that somehow being elected makes them, you know, God’s gift to women, that they can suddenly please themselves. That is never OK, that kind of behaviour, disrespect for women.