A general view of the Houses of Parliament at sunrise in London, Britain February 9, 2022. REUTERS/Tom Nicholson
LONDON, April 30 – A British lawmaker who had been suspended by Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party said on Saturday he had resigned after admitting he had twice viewed pornography ‘in a moment of madness’ on his phone in the House of Commons.
The Conservatives suspended Neil Parish on Friday after he reported himself to Parliament’s Standards Commissioner.
Parish resigned on Saturday after previously saying he would continue as MP while an inquiry was conducted. Continue reading
“In the end, I could see that the upset and damage I was causing my family and my constituency just wasn’t worth moving on,” a tearful Parish said in an interview with the BBC on Saturday.
Parish, a farmer, said that when he first saw the explicit material, he accidentally stumbled upon it while searching for tractors on a similarly-named website, and then “watched it for a while, which I wouldn’t have should do “.
“But my crime, the greatest crime, is that on another occasion I went in a second time and that was on purpose. That’s when I sat on the side of the Chamber waiting to vote.”
When asked what went through his mind, he described it as “a moment of madness.”
Earlier this week, British media had reported that a minister said she had seen a male colleague sitting next to her in the House of Commons viewing pornographic material and the same lawmaker viewing pornography during a committee hearing.
“I wasn’t proud of what I was doing,” Parish said, adding that he didn’t intend for those around him to see it.
“I will not defend what I have done. What I did was absolutely, utterly wrong… I feel like I must have completely lost my senses.”
In an interview with The Times newspaper, published before his resignation, Parish’s wife said she was unaware her husband had done anything similar before and that her husband was “a lovely person”.
“It was all very embarrassing,” the newspaper quoted Sue Parish as saying. “To be honest, I was breathless.”
Reporting by Kylie MacLellan; Edited by Catherine Evans and Hugh Lawson