MP: My crime, my biggest crime, is that on another occasion I went in a second time
Backbencheron ‘momentof madness’
Tory MP Neil Parish yesterday resigned
after admitting to twice watching pornography in the House of
Commons, saying he first accidentally viewed it after looking at tractors online before returning to the site.
The 65-year-old select committee chair, a farmer by trade, said the second time was while sitting waiting to vote on the side of the Commons chamber in a “moment of madness”.
He had vowed to continue as the MP for Tiverton and Honiton after it was revealed he was the politician seen watching porn by two Conservative colleagues, but eventually bowed to pressure to resign yesterday.
The backbencher said in an interview with BBC South West that he recognised the “furore” and “damage” he was causing his family and his constituency in Devon before deciding “it just wasn’t worth carrying on”.
“The situation was, funnily enough, it was tractors I was looking at, so I did get into another website with sort of a very similar name and I watched it for a bit, which I shouldn’t have done,” Mr Parish said. “My crime, my biggest crime, is that on another occasion I went in a second time, and that was deliberate.
“That was waiting to vote at the side of the chamber.”
Parish said it was a “moment of madness”, which he accepted was “totally wrong”, as he insisted he was “not making sure people could see it” and was trying to be discreet.
“It was wrong what I was doing, but this idea that I was there watching it, intimidating women... I mean I have 12 years in parliament and probably one of the best reputations ever – or did.”
When pressed on why he chose to view the material in the Commons, he said: “I don’t know, I think I must’ve taken complete leave of my senses and my sensibilities and my sense of decency, everything.”
Deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner expressed bafflement at the MP’S excuse, adding: “Neil Parish must think you were all born yesterday. Boris Johnson’s Conservatives are a national embarrassment.”
His conduct first emerged at a meeting of female members of the Conservative 2022 group in Westminster on Tuesday night. Two women said they had witnessed a male colleague watching porn in the Commons chamber.
One of them, a minister, said she had also seen him viewing adult material in a committee meeting. Reporters learned of the allegations the following morning, but not the name of the culprit.
Tory Chief Whip Chris Heaton-harris responded by calling the behaviour “wholly unacceptable” and launching an investigation.
The senior backbencher’s initial silence, followed by insistence he would stay in the job after he was unmasked, helped prolong the torrid affair for the Conservatives.
Criticism has also been aired at the Tory whips for taking days to suspend him.
The Tiverton and Honiton Conservative Association thanked Parish for his “service to our communities” since becoming MP in 2010, adding: “We support his decision to step down as our Member of Parliament.”
His departure as the chairman of the Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee will pave the way for a by-election in the safe Tory seat, which he won by more than 14,000 votes over Labour in 2019.
Allegations of a pornwatching MP were first aired in a meeting with Chris Heaton-harris on Tuesday. Parish did not come forward as the culprit, even when asked about the claims in a televised interview, until when the revelations were about to be made public on Friday.
The Conservatives then suspended the whip from him, meaning he was out of the parliamentary party. He referred himself to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, and said he would continue with his “duties” in the Commons pending an investigation.