Porn MP goes down
Tory was ‘looking at tractors’ when phone turned x-rated
Neil Parish resigned as a British Conservative MP on the weekend, admitting he watched pornography on his phone in the House of Commons after looking at tractors on the internet.
The former farmer conceded he had viewed X-rated content in parliament twice, describing it as a “moment of madness” and something of which he was “not proud”.
Mr Parish, 65, said the first time he had watched porn was accidental, insisting he had been looking at tractors on his mobile phone before straying on to a website with a “very similar name”. He said he watched the video “for a bit, which I shouldn’t have done”.
On the second occasion, however, the married father of two admitted he had looked at porn deliberately while waiting to vote at the side of the chamber. “What I did was absolutely wrong,” he told the BBC.
Mr Parish, who chaired the Commons environment, food and rural affairs committee, issued a “full apology” to the two female MPs who had seen him watching the pornography, but insisted it was “not my intention to intimidate”.
It marked a significant Uturn in 24 hours. At first he had defied calls to quit and said he would await the findings of a parliamentary investigation. A growing number of Conservative MPs made clear his position was untenable, however, and he should resign immediately rather than prolong the controversy days before the local elections on Thursday.
“It was hard to see how he could come back, given the public exposure,” one MP said.
Pressure on Mr Parish is also understood to have increased after he gave media interviews in which he appeared to admit to having watched the pornography.
Speaking from his farmhouse in Somerset he also suggested he was relieved that he had been named after days of fevered speculation.
His wife of 40 years, Sue Parish, described his actions as “stupid” and “very embarrassing” but stood by him, describing him as a “normal guy” and a “lovely person”.