Tory MP Neil Parish said he will resign as an MP after he admitted to watching pornography twice in the House of Commons - but said it began after first looking at tractors online.
Mr Parish was accused by two female colleagues of watching explicit content in the House of Commons on his mobile phone while sitting near them. Following the claims, Mr Parish was suspended from the Conservative whip on Friday (April 29) pending the outcome of an investigation.
As earlier speculated, Mr Parish has now announced he has resigned from his position as MP of Tiverton and Honiton in the South West. In an interview with the BBC, he also confirmed the claims were accurate.
The spectacular conversation with BBC South West began with Mr Parish explaining that he had first looked at tractors online before getting ‘into another website that had a very similar name’. He said : "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. But my crime - biggest crime - is that on another occasion I went in a second time." When asked if logging onto the second website was intentional, the MP said: "That was deliberate... that was sitting waiting to vote on the side of the chamber." He added: "What I did was absolutely wrong."
Mr Parish said he was standing down after seeing the damage caused by his actions on his family and his constituency. He said: "I was wrong, I was stupid, I lost sense of mind.” The 65-year-old however denied watching the material in a bid to be seen by others. He told the BBC: "I make a full apology. A total full apology. It was not my intention to intimidate."
Mr Parish first began representing his Devon constituency in 2019. His departure is now expected to trigger a by-election in the patch. He was also the chair of the Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee.
