A TORY MP who was arrested for sexual offences and indecent assault has not attended the House of Commons for more than a year.
Andrew Rosindell has been under investigation by the Metropolitan Police since January 2020 and was formally detained in May last year.
He denies any wrongdoing and is on bail, which has been extended five times. He has not been charged.
After agreeing to stay away from Parliament following a request from the Tory chief whip Chris Heaton-Harris, he has not voted or spoken in the Commons since, but his constituents do not know he is being probed or that he has agreed to stay away from the estate, according to The Times.
Rosindell has been selected for fight for his London seat of Romford in the General Election, which he has represented since 2001.
He got a majority of 17,893 at the 2019 election.
According to Rosindell, 25 to 30 people took part in the vote to adopt him as their candidate.
A party source claimed it would have been “unlawful” to inform the participants of Rosindell’s predicament. They included officers of the local association and representatives from wards within the constituency.
After the vote Rosindell said: “I am humbled and honoured to have been reselected.
“It has been a privilege to serve the people of this wonderful community and I look forward to continuing to work tirelessly on their behalf.”
The police inquiry was not discussed.
Tory party officials believed failing to reselect Rosindell could lead to his identification, while they thought privacy law prevented them from telling the public about his arrest.
The MP, who was not publicly identified when he was arrested, said: “I have on no occasion visited the parliamentary estate since May 17, 2022, and continue to respect the agreement not to come in.”
He described the arrangement as a “gentlemen’s agreement”.
Rosindell is also under investigation for misconduct in public and abuse of a position of trust, with the offences covering the period from 2002 to 2009.
He was both a shadow minister and whip during the seven-year spell.
Since 2016 the House of Commons authorities have given MPs the choice of whether the chamber is notified of their arrest. The clerk, the chamber’s top official, and the Speaker have the final say, and must assess whether the arrest poses issues of constitutional significance.
There is no formal mechanism for banning members from the Commons on a precautionary basis.
Rosindell has at no point had the whip suspended, which would in effect temporarily remove him from the parliamentary group of Tory MPs.
He is recorded as having last voted in the Commons on April 27, 2022, and spoken in a debate in the chamber on April 25 that year.
While he has not voted or spoken in the last year, he has submitted more than 600 written questions to ministers and taken part in foreign trips as part of his membership of all-party parliamentary groups.
Last month MPs debated a proposal to exclude members who are being investigated or have been charged with sexual or violent offences and are deemed by an expert panel to pose a risk to others.
The government did not hold a vote on the proposals out of concern that constituents would be left without a democratic representative should their MP be excluded from parliament.
If Rosindell had had the whip removed, he would have been subject to extra scrutiny and been required to appear in front of a panel of senior Conservative Party figures before being reselected as a parliamentary candidate, but he faced the same process as any other MP.
Neither Rosindell nor his team stated that he was under police investigation.
His parliamentary office issued a statement saying the decision to reselect him was a “vote of confidence in Mr Rosindell’s leadership and record in office [that] underscores his commitment to serving the people of Romford, and his track record of delivering results for the community”.
Once the police complete their investigation, they must decide whether there is sufficient evidence to pass the matter to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), which in turn will decide whether to charge an individual with an offence.
If the police do not meet the threshold of evidence required for a referral to the CPS, a person will be told they face no further action and will not have a criminal record of any kind.
Rosindell denies the allegations being investigated but has declined to comment further on the matter or on his ability to attend parliament since his arrest.
