Parliament’s Independent Expert Panel has recommended that Tory MP Peter Bone be suspended for six weeks for bullying and sexual misconduct (Picture: PA)
MP Peter Bone has been suspended from the House of Commons for six weeks after being found to have committed bullying and sexual misconduct against a staff member.
Mr Bone was found to have ‘committed many varied acts of bullying and one act of sexual misconduct’ against a staff member in 2012 and 2013.
The MP said the allegations were ‘false and untrue’ and ‘without foundation’ last week, but he was kicked out of the Tory parliamentary party the next day and has been sitting as an independant in the Commons ever since.
A recall petition will be arranged following his suspension, which will trigger a by-election if signed by 10% of voters in the Northamptonshire constituency.
Mr Bone was accused of indecent exposure and bullying a member of staff (Picture: PA)
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 Tories had held in both Tamworth and Mid Bedfordshire in 2019, and they both fell to Labour in by-elections last week.
Parliament’s Independent Expert Panel upheld an earlier investigation that found he broke the MPs’ code of conduct on four counts of bullying and one of sexual misconduct.
According to the investigation, Mr Bone ‘verbally belittled, ridiculed, abused and humiliated’ an employee and ‘repeatedly physically struck and threw things’ at him.
He was also found to have indecently exposed himself to the complainant in the bathroom of a hotel room during a work trip to Madrid.
The MP 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.
Speaking to the BBC, the complainant at the centre of the case said the ordeal was a ‘horrid, brutal, dark experience that left me a broken shell of the young man I once was’.
His constituency is preparing a recall petition which could trigger a by-election (Picture: PA)
‘His temper was often explosive. I described it as like a pendulum,’ he said, adding that Mr Bone’s behaviour was ‘relentless’.
He 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.
Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle is seeking procedural advice after Tory former minister Liam Fox raised concerns of a possible contempt of Parliament caused by the BBC interview.
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Tory MP Peter Bone was found to have ‘verbally belittled, ridiculed, abused and humiliated’ an employee and indecently exposed himself to him.