Conservative member of Parliament Neil Parish speaks at a business breakfast on June 1, 2016. He says he will resign after admitting that he watched porn in the House of Commons.
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Conservative member of Parliament Neil Parish speaks at a business breakfast on June 1, 2016. He says he will resign after admitting that he watched porn in the House of Commons.
Matt Cardy/Getty Images
Neil Parish, a Conservative Party member of Parliament, says he is resigning after admitting he watched pornography twice in the House of Commons in a “moment of madness.”
The first time was accidental, he told the BBC. It happened after he was looking at tractors. But the second time, it was intentional.
“… Funnily enough it was tractors I was looking at,” he told BBC. “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. But my crime — biggest crime — is that on another occasion I went in a second time.”
Two female colleagues said they saw Parish looking at porn from his phone, while they were sitting near him. The Conservative Party suspended him Friday over the allegations.
In a statement Friday, Parish said he will cooperate with any investigation.
“Following recent allegations regarding an MP’s use of their mobile phone in Parliament, I have referred myself to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards in the House of Commons,” Parish wrote in a statement.
The incident is the latest sexual misconduct allegation in British politics. Three additional Conservative members of Parliament are currently suspended from the party after claims of sexual misconduct, The Associated Press reported.
