British MP resigns after watching porn in parliament


FE Team | Published: April 30, 2022 20:03:46 | Updated: May 02, 2022 10:33:22


British MP resigns after watching porn in parliament

Neil Parish, a Member of Parliament of the United Kingdom, has said he has decided to resign as an MP after admitting he watched pornography twice in the House of Commons.

The MP for Tiverton and Honiton in Devon said it had been a "moment of madness" and "I was not proud of what I was doing".

He said the first time was accidental after looking at tractors, but the second time was deliberate.

He was suspended by the Conservative Party on Friday over the allegations.

Two female colleagues claimed they had seen him looking at adult content on his phone while sitting near them.

Neil Parish 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."

Asked if that was deliberate he said: "That was deliberate... that was sitting waiting to vote on the side of the chamber."

He added: "What I did was absolutely wrong."

Parish appeared emotional as he said he was standing down after seeing the furore and damage it was causing his family, his constituency and local association.

"I was wrong, I was stupid, I lost sense of mind," he said.

But he denied watching the material in a way where he hoped other people would see it.

He told the BBC he was apologising: "I make a full apology. A total full apology. It was not my intention to intimidate."

In an earlier interview with the Times, Mr Parish's wife, Sue Parish, said the allegation was "very embarrassing" and described her husband as "quite a normal guy" and "a lovely person".

"If you were mad with every man who looked at pornography, you would not have many wives in the world," she said.

She added she did not see the attraction of pornography and understood why the women who had made the allegation were upset.

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