Rishi Sunak faces another by-election headache after an ex-Tory MP was suspended for six weeks for bullying and sexual misconduct against a staff member.
MPs have approved the sanction against the MP for Wellingborough Peter Bone, who is sitting as an independent after losing the Conservative whip.
A recall petition will be arranged, which will trigger a by-election if signed by 10 per cent of voters in the Northamptonshire constituency.
Mr Bone has held the seat for the Conservatives since 2005 and retained it at the last general election with a majority of 18,540.
That is smaller than the majorities the embattled Tories had held in both Tamworth and Mid Bedfordshire in 2019, and they both fell to Labour in by-elections last week.
The MP “committed many varied acts of bullying and one act of sexual misconduct” in 2012 and 2013, according to Parliament’s Independent Expert Panel.
He “verbally belittled, ridiculed, abused and humiliated” the employee and “repeatedly physically struck and threw things” at him, the panel heard.
Rishi Sunak could be heading for another by election battle following the suspension
Mr Bone was found to have indecently exposed himself to the complainant in the bathroom of a hotel room during a work trip to Madrid.
He also imposed an “unwanted and humiliating ritual” on the man by forcing him to sit with his hands in his lap when the MP was unhappy with his work, the investigation found.
The complainant at the centre of the case has told the BBC it was a “horrid, brutal, dark experience that left me a broken shell of the young man I once was”.
The staffer said: “Peter’s behaviour was erratic. His temper was often explosive.
“Like a pendulum, he would go from one type of personality to another. It was very hard to predict, and that kind of left me feeling quite under siege.
“They call it a siege mentality in terms of the relentless shouting, the screaming, the hitting.”
The man accused the Conservative Party of having “effectively ghosted” him for three years after he first reported the allegations, with a complaint going to then-prime minister Theresa May in 2017.
He said he felt disrespect when Boris Johnson made Mr Bone deputy leader of the House of Commons despite an investigation by Tory HQ.
Mr Bone denied the allegations, insisting they were “without foundation” but he was kicked out of the Tory parliamentary party the next day. He has vowed to continue representing his constituents.
A staff member of Mr Bone’s made five allegations about him in October 2021, including that he verbally belittled, ridiculed, abused and humiliated” his employee.
In his response to the panel’s findings, Mr Bone said: “As I have maintained throughout these proceedings, none of the misconduct allegations against me ever took place. They are false and untrue claims.”
