MP Neil Parish resigns, accused of watching porn in the House of Commons | International

The conservative deputy of the United Kingdom accused of watching porn on his mobile phone in full session of the House of Commons, Neil Parish, has presented his resignation this Saturday. The denunciation of two women colleagues from the parliamentary group provoked an intense debate on the sexist practices that persist in the political sphere. Once the leadership of the conservative group decided to refer the matter to the Complaints and Complaints Commission, a body that emerged from the MeToo movement, Parish decided to come to light, despite the fact that his companions had not given his name. . The British Prime Minister, also tory Boris Johnson, sentenced after the accusation came to light that if the facts imputed to Parish were confirmed, it would be “a totally unacceptable behavior”, both in Parliament and in any other workplace.

Parish, 65, who has combined his parliamentary seat for the constituency of Tiverton and Honiton with his profession as a farmer, explained on the BBC that the first of the two times he saw porn on his mobile was an accident. He was taking a look at a tractor page when, according to him, the sexual content jumped out. The second time, however, he intentionally searched for a porn page. “The biggest crime is that I entered a second time. It was deliberate. He was sitting waiting to vote on the side of the House. It was a moment of absolute madness and totally wrong,” said the politician, who admitted having made “a big mistake.”

Parish did not decide to resign at first. “I thought I could explain to the committee what had happened, but when I saw the fury and the damage caused to my family and my colleagues, I understood that it was not worth continuing”, explained the deputy, who initially resisted submit their resignation until the conclusions of the investigation by the Complaints and Denunciations Commission are known. The Solicitor General of the United Kingdom, Suella Braverman, the main legal adviser to the Government, assured on Thursday that attitudes such as Parish’s tarnish parliamentary work: “There are some bad apples that get out of tune, behave like animals and damage the reputation of the Parliament”.

A vote must now be held to replace the deputy, which in British political jargon is known as by choice. Parish has managed to hold onto the seat for 12 years with 60% majorities in a very conservative region. Although his party colleagues have breathed a sigh of relief at his resignation, and have shown their irritation at the time it took to show his face and offer explanations, before his departure they have decided to highlight all the good contributed for more than a decade by a deputy who arrived to chair the Food, Environment and Agriculture Committee of the House of Commons. “What I did was wrong, but the idea that I’ve spent 12 years bullying women… Until now my reputation was spotless. Until now ”, explained Parish, convinced that he simply lost his mind, and that he never suspected that someone was watching him, from higher benches, while he watched porn on his mobile.

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