It would be a “sackable offence” for MPs to watch pornography in the Commons, a Labour spokesman has said following the news that the Conservative Party is investigating claims one of its own MPs watched adult content while in the chamber.
On Tuesday night, a group of around 12 female Tory MPs reportedly met Chris Heaton-Harris, the Tory chief whip, to complain about sexism in parliament, with one claiming she was sat next to a male colleague when he began watching porn in the Commons.
Various Tory MPs have since called for swift action on the matter. Northern Ireland minister Conor Burns said “decisive action” would be taken “if the facts are established”. Meanwhile, Pauline Latham suggested any MP found to have committed such an act would have to resign. “It’s just not excusable in any way,” she told GB News.
The revelations come amid an ongoing misogyny row in Westminster, sparked by the publication of a Mail on Sunday article in which a Tory MP suggested deputy labour leader Angela Rayner crossed and uncrossed her legs in parliament to distract Boris Johnson.
Watching porn in Commons ‘sackable offence’, says Labour
Following my earlier post about Labour’s response to the investigation into a Tory MP watching porn in the Commons (2.22pm), here’s Adam Forrest with more detail:
Tories criticised for allowing convicted Tory paedophile place on sex abuse panel
Moving away from the Tory misogyny row for a moment, a survivor of the Rotherham child sexual exploitation scandal has criticised the Conservative Party for asking an MP found guilty this month of molesting a teenage boy to review a Home Office research paper on child sexual exploitation.
This is the same allegation Boris Johnson refused to apologise for during PMQs earlier (see post from 12.43pm).
Sammy Woodhouse said she was “disgusted” that she was put in the position of working with Imran Ahmad Khan on an expert panel while he was under police investigation. Ms Woodhouse, who was targeted, groomed and abused as a teenager in Rotherham, said on Wednesday: “This was important work that I undertook in good faith, but I am disgusted to have been put in a position where I was working with a man later convicted for child sexual assault.
“Knowing now that the Conservatives had already received complaints from a victim about this man, it is gut-wrenching for me as a survivor that they could possibly have allowed him to be considered for this role.”
Khan, 48, was found guilty earlier this month of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old in 2008 before he was elected as the Tory MP for Wakefield. He reportedly attended several online meetings of sexual exploitation experts in 2020 and peer-reviewed a research paper entitled “Group-based child sexual exploitation characteristics of offending”.
The victim, now 29, told a court he contacted the Tory Party press office days before the December 2019 general election to tell them what Khan had done to him, and made a complaint to police days after the poll.
A Home Office spokesperson insists that neither home secretary Priti Patel nor the Home Office were aware of the allegations against Khan before they became public last year, and that he never directly advised the department on policy related to child sexual exploitation.
Khan resigned as Wakefield’s MP earlier this month following his conviction for sexual assault
” height=”726″ width=”982″ layout=”responsive” class=”i-amphtml-layout-responsive i-amphtml-layout-size-defined” i-amphtml-layout=”responsive”> Khan resigned as Wakefield’s MP earlier this month following his conviction for sexual assault
PM ‘uncomfortable’ about Mail editor being summoned to see Speaker – No 10
At the post-PMQs lobby briefing, Boris Johnson’s spokesperson said the PM was “uncomfortable” with the idea of politicians summoning journalists to explain their stories, after the editor of the Mail On Sunday refused a meeting with the Commons speaker to discuss an article in his newspaper about Angela Rayner.
Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the speaker, told MPs on Monday that he had arranged a meeting with David Dillon following an outcry over claims in the article that Ms Rayner, the deputy Labour leader, crossed and uncrossed her legs to distract Boris Johnson in parliament.
In his response to the speaker, published in the Daily Mail, Mr Dillon said he and his political editor Glen Owen would not be attending as journalists should “not take instruction from officials of the House of Commons, however august they may be”.
Downing Street subsequently issued a thinly veiled rebuke to the speaker over his attempt to call in Mr Dillon, with the PM’s official spokesman saying Mr Johnson – a former journalist – would not want “any perception of politicians seeking to in any way curb or control what a free press seeks to report”. He added:
“We have a free press in this country and reporters must be free to report what they are told as they see fit.”
Cross-party calls grow for Tory MP under investigation for porn claims to be sacked
Our politics reporter Adam Forrest has this:
Tory MP Pauline Latham suggested any MP found to have watched porn in the chamber would have to resign. “They should go,” she told GB News. “That will mean their ministerial career is absolutely shot and their parliamentary career probably. It’s just not excusable in any way. It’s totally shocking.”
Labour MP Pat McFadden suggested on BBC Politics Live there would be a “kicking out” if someone from his party was found to have watched porn in the chamber.
SNP MP Kirsty Blackman added: “The level of entitlement that you have to sit in the chamber and watch porn – I mean that is taking everything for granted. They’ve been elected to represent their constituents not to sit in the chamber and watch porn.”
Listen: Rayner jokes about ‘Basic Instinct’ moment in podcast
Should MPs be suspended over misogyny? Have your say
The fallout from The Mail on Sunday’s ’Basic Instinct’ article on Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner continues to bubble on with the newspaper’s editor David Dillon rejecting Speaker Lindsay Hoyle’s invitation to meet and discuss the article.
Enter our reader poll and tell us whether you think MPs should be suspended over misogyny:
Sackable offence to watch porn in Commons, Labour says
It would be a “sackable offence” for MPs to watch pornography in the House of Commons chamber, Labour has said.
Asked if party leader Keir Starmer had any views on the matter, a party spokesman said simply: “Yeah, it’s a sackable offence.”
Northern Ireland minister separately said he was “not going to even attempt to defend” what has reportedly happened.
He added: “The chief whip’s job is to establish the facts. And if facts are established then action will should be decisively, and will be.”
Labour MP jokes he was ‘distressed’ not to be included on Russian sanctions list
Labour MP Chris Bryant joked he was “distressed” not to be included in Russian sanctions against MPs.
He said: “I’m absolutely distressed that I’m not on the list.
“And, if I’m honest, slightly surprised, I can only assume that the Russian Federation accepts that every single thing that I have said about President Putin over the last few years is true.
“He is a barbarous villain and we must make sure that he fails.”
Boris Johnson refuses to criticise paedophile Tory MP’s place on sex abuse panel
Boris Johnson has declined to apologise after it emerged a Tory MP who molested a 15 year-old boy was advising the government on child sexual exploitation.
Imran Ahmad Khan, the then Conservative MP for Wakefield, was sitting on a Home Office-backed expert panel in December 2020, a year after his victim says he had complained to the Conservative party.
Our policy correspondent Jon Stone has the full story:
No misogyny and sexism problem in Tory party, PM’s aides insist
Aides to Boris Johnson insisted the Tory party did not have a problem with misogyny and sexism following claims a Conservative MP was caught watching pornography on his mobile phone in the House of Commons chamber.
The prime minister’s press secretary said: “You will have heard the PM address this explicitly in parliament today and over the last few days, saying there is absolutely no place for such behaviour and this cannot be tolerated in any workplace.”
Asked whether watching pornography at work was a sackable offence, she said: “I am not aware of the disciplinary action. Obviously, it is wholly unacceptable behaviour and it is being looked into.”
