Tory MP will quit after Commons’ porn scandal
THE Tory MP caught twice watching pornography in the British House of Commons bowed to pressure yesterday and said he will resign.
Former farmer Neil Parish tried to excuse his behaviour by claiming he had been searching his phone for tractor websites when he first viewed indecent material – but admitted that the second time had been deliberate. Mr Parish, 65, told the BBC: ‘The situation was that… funnily enough it was tractors I was looking at. I did get into another website that had a very similar name and I watched it for a bit, which I shouldn’t have done.’
Mr Parish, chairman of the Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, then admitted that his ‘biggest crime’ was the second incident, when he intentionally viewed pornography while waiting to vote.
Two female Tory MPs claimed last week they had seen Mr Parish looking at porn on his phone while he sat near them in the Commons Chamber – but his identity was not confirmed until Friday when he was suspended from the Tory party, but he had refused to resign his seat.
Mr Parish said: ‘In the end I could see that the furore and the damage I was causing my family and my constituency and association. It was not worth carrying on.’