The X tractor
MP quits & admits looking at porn TWICE in Commons Says he was searching for farm machinery site
PORN-WATCHING MP Neil Parish has quit, calling his dip into X-rated websites “a moment of madness”.
The 65-year-old said he looked at porn sites twice – the first time accidentally as he googled tractors but the second time deliberately – in the Commons.
Devon farmer Mr Parish was outed as the Commons porn MP on Friday. He had the whip withdrawn and referred himself to the Standards Committee.
By yesterday he realised his position was untenable, telling BBC South West: “It just wasn’t worth carrying on. My biggest crime is I went in a second time while waiting to vote. I was not proud of what I was doing. I must have taken complete leave of my senses and sense of decency.”
His resignation will mean a byelection in his 24,239-majority Honiton and Tiverton seat and the need for a new chair for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee. Shadow Commons leader Thangam Debbonaire said: “The people of Tiverton and Honiton deserve better than Neil Parish’s disgusting behaviour.
“But it’s shocking the Tories have allowed this debacle to drag out. This Government is rotting from the head down.”
Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner said: “He was looking for tractors but ended up with porn actors? Neil Parish must think you were all born yesterday.”
And Lib Dem deputy leader Daisy Cooper added: “It is appalling Neil Parish had to be pushed to resign after those in
I must have taken complete leave of my sense
of decency
charge of the Tory Party spent days dragging their feet.”
Married Mr Parish, who has two children and two grandchildren, has been an MP since 2010.
His local party supported his decision and Mr Parish’s wife, Sue, will be standing by him.
She said: “If you were mad with every man who looked at pornography, you would not have many wives in the world.”
His fate was sealed when two female Conservatives made the allegation of porn-watching at a meeting of the Tory 2022 women MPS group. One minister told more than 30 colleagues she spotted an MP flicking through porn on his mobile during a debate.
And in a Metoo moment during a meeting that shocked Chief Whip Chris Heaton-harris, Commons leader Mark Spencer and Tory chair Oliver Dowden, a second woman MP claimed she saw an MP doing the same thing.
Following the “Sharon Stone” leg-crossing slur against Ms Rayner, the women MPS did not go easy on the three men.
One MP said: “We’re not valued as assets but as people who must be tolerated. We gave it to
them with both barrels.” Since then, International Trade Secretary Anne-marie Trevelyan has claimed she has been the victim of “wandering hands” six times since entering Parliament in 2015 – and one MP pinned her against a wall to demand sex.
The Independent Complaints and Grievance Scheme is now reportedly investigating 70 complaints against 56 MPS, including three Cabinet ministers.
Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle last night announced that he would deal with Parliament’s reputation as Pestminster.
nigel.nelson@people.co.uk