Neil Parish, the Tory MP who said he accidentally opened “tractor porn” on his mobile phone in the House of Commons, resigned his seat on Saturday and admitted he had deliberately watched the racy videos in the chamber.
The 65-year-old Conservative lawmaker had a “moment of madness,” he said, when he looked up adult content in an idle moment while waiting for a vote.
The former farmer said he first stumbled upon the obscure online erotica, which appears to relate to a sexual position, while viewing tractors on his phone, and then a website with a “very similar name” to the Sunday Times, was reported from London.
The Chamber of Commons where Parish allegedly watched porn on his phone.AP
Parish said he watched the NSFW video “for a while, which I shouldn’t have.”
But the second time around, the married father-of-two admitted he searched for the porn on purpose – and was caught in the act by two female MPs who filed a formal complaint.
Parish said he apologizes “fully” to lawmakers and insisted it was “not my intention to intimidate them”.
His resignation came less than 24 hours after he said he would refuse to leave his seat unless found guilty.
But a chorus of Conservative peers told him otherwise – fearing a backlash from voters ahead of Thursday’s local elections.
“It was hard to imagine how he could come back in the face of public exposure,” said one MP.