Tory MP is quizzed for four hours over rape claim
Maverick Mark Pritchard is arrested by detectives
AN OUTSPOKEN Conservative MP has been arrested on suspicion of rape.
Mark Pritchard, 48, went to a police station by appointment and was questioned by Scotland Yard detectives.
The backbencher was questioned for four hours over the allegation before being released on bail until next month.
His arrest was revealed in an online statement of proceedings at the House of Commons.
Details of the allegation were unclear but it is understood that the alleged rape was said to have taken place in central London in recent weeks.
Mr Pritchard is a prominent member of the Tory Right and a leading Eurosceptic who was secretary of the 1922 Committee of Conservative backbenchers.
He was at the centre of a political storm in 2010 when he told Commons Speaker John Bercow ‘You’re not f****** royalty’ after being told to stand aside in a Westminster corridor.
Yesterday, Mr Bercow was responsible for revealing Mr Pritchard’s arrest in the Parliamentary record Hansard under the title ‘Arrest of a member’.
The paper read: ‘ Copy of a letter addressed to the Speaker … from the Metropolitan Police, relating to the arrest of Mark Pritchard, Member for The Wrekin.’
The disclosure came after police wrote to Mr Bercow to inform him of the arrest but did not say what it was for.
The short letter, marked ‘Confidential for Speaker only’ and ‘Not for further dissemination’, later emerged in the media.
It said: ‘I write to inform you that on 2nd December 2014, Mark Pritchard MP was arrested at 6.14pm at Holborn police sta- tion in London. Mr Pritchard was questioned by police and released on bail later the same evening at 10.16pm. The matter is subject to further investigation and is sub judice at the present time.’
Soon after, the Met confirmed
‘Serious allegations’
that a 48-year-old man had been arrested on a rape charge.
Before his arrest, Mr Pritchard – the MP for the Shropshire seat of The Wrekin since 2005 – was in the House taking part in a debate on the peace process in Colombia.
The next day his official website published news of his visit to his constituency to boost support for grassroots football.
In September, Mr Pritchard said he had been targeted by a journalist in the sting that led to Tory minister Brooks Newmark resigning over explicit selfies.
He has apparently withdrawn a complaint to the Independent Press Standards Organisation after agreeing a settlement.
Mr Pritchard is unique among Tory MPs in being raised in an orphanage. From the age of five he was cared for by foster parents in a council house.
He left state school at 16 with few qualifications and worked as a labourer. But he studied hard to gain a masters degree before earning a six-figure salary as a marketing director.
He began his political career as a Tory councillor in Harrow before being elected to Parliament. He is on the joint national security strategy committee, which considers the threat from terrorism, cyber war, global military crises and natural disasters.
Mr Pritchard has called for more working- class MPs to be promoted by David Cameron and said people who ‘went to school in a Morris Minor rather than a Jaguar’ would have avoided the ‘ pasty tax’ gaffe in the 2012 Budget – a proposal to put VAT on hot takeaways.
But he ended any hopes of a ministerial career in 2011 by publicly accusing Mr Cameron of trying to bully him into dropping his call for a ban on the use of wild animals in circuses.
The MP had an acrimonious split from his American-born wife Sondra last year, in which she accused him of dumping her by text after 16 years of marriage. Commons records show he still employs her as his office manager.
His friend Tory MP Mark Garnier said: ‘I last saw him on Tuesday when he was arrested.
‘These are incredibly serious allegations. Clearly, he must answer to the rule of law.’
A Tory spokesman said: ‘This is a police matter. It would be inappropriate to comment while an investigation is taking place.’