8 2GM Saturday April 30 2022 | the times
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Neil Parish was holding back tears as he
told his wife the bad news. “I’m sorry
you’ve married a f***ing idiot,” he said.
The MP for Tiverton & Honiton had
left Sue, his partner of 40 years, at
lunchtime without letting on that
allegations already circulating about an
MP looking at pornography while in
parliament were about him.
By the time he returned at about
5.30pm, she knew. She was speaking to
a local reporter as her husband arrived.
The mother of their two children
recalled hearing the news that he had
reported himself to the Parliamentary
Commissioner for Standards from the
local BBC reporter.
“It was all very embarrassing,” she
said in the sitting room of their farm-
house in Somerset. “My breath was
taken away, frankly.”
Asked if she was aware of her
husband having done anything similar
before, she said: “No. He’s quite a
normal guy, really. He’s a lovely person.
It’s just so stupid.”
Parish said that he had wanted to tell
his wife earlier but had been stuck at his
constituency surgery in Honiton and
his telephone battery went flat. He was
then stuck in traffic on the M5.
His official line is that he is referring
himself to the Parliamentary Commis-
sioner for Standards and that he will co-
operate fully, but speaking outside his
home he was apologetic.
“It was a complete mistake and I will
man up to it as they say. My main
concern at the moment is my very
supportive wife,” the MP said.
He said that he had “no recollection”
about the kind of pornography he had
been watching and declined to
comment on how many occasions he
had viewed it while in parliament.
His wife said that she felt cross about
him looking at pornography and that
she understood why other women
would too. “People shouldn’t be looking
at pornography. He would never just sit
there with people looking. He would
never just do that knowing [people
were looking]. These ladies were quite
right to be as cross as they were because
I was cross, too.”
The allegations first emerged earlier
this week when two female Tory MPs
said during a meeting of the 2022 group,
which aims to increase gender equality
in the party, that they had seen a
male colleague watching
pornography — both in
the Commons and
during a
committee hear-
ing.
“I’ve just no
idea what
happens in
these cir-
cumstances,”
Sue Parish
said yester-
day. “I don’t
know whether
it’s ever hap-
pened before.”
She said that she
did not understand
the attraction of porno-
graphy but knew that it was
It’s so stupid. He’s a good person,
News Politics
Sue Parish says that
there are very few
men who haven’t
looked at pornography,
Jack Malvern writes
commonplace. “If you were mad with
every man who looked at pornography,
I think there would be very few men in
the world who have not had their wives
going on at them.
“I don’t understand [the attraction of]
it. I’m a woman. Hence why the women
were so cross. It’s degrading. It’s
demeaning. But on the other hand it
takes two to tango. There must be
women posing for all this.”
A chorister in the local choir, she said
that she worked for her husband two
days a week but was unsure for how
much longer that would continue. “I
worked [there]. I suspect it’s in the past
tense.”
She suggested that their marriage
was strong enough to withstand the
row, even if his career may not be.
“I think it would be a bit stupid [to let
it come between us]. As I say, I’m fairly
tough. You’ve got to carry on, haven’t
you? Where that leaves [his career]...
What’s going to happen? I’ve got no
idea. It depends on what Chris Heaton-
Harris [the Tory chief whip] says, I
suppose. I don’t think it’s going to carry
on, is it? It’s so stupid. He’s such a good
MP. He’s such a good person.”
As she was speaking, a spokesman for
Heaton-Harris announced that Parish
has been suspended from the Conserv-
ative whip.
Parish said that he would continue to
serve his constituents and conduct
surgeries, even though the whip had
been withdrawn. He has served as MP
for the area since being elected in 2010
and his most senior appointment was as
chairman of the environment commit-
tee.
On his website, he describes his
support for charities such as the Guide
Dogs for the Blind Association.
Earlier this week, Parish gave a
television interview in which he said
the whips’ office would undertake a
“thorough investigation” into the then
unknown MP accused of watching
porn and said “we will wait and see that
result”.
Appearing on GB News, he was asked
whether the accused should have the
whip removed.
He said: “I think the whips’ office will
do a thorough investigation and we will
wait and see that result and I think you
know, from that, then the decision will
have to be made.”
Asked whether there was a cultural
problem in Westminster, Parish said
parliament was a “very intense” area.
“I mean, you are going to get people
that step over the line,” he said.
“I don’t think there’s necessarily a
huge culture here, but I think it does
have to be dealt with and dealt with se-
riously and I think, you know, that’s
what the whips will do in our
whips’ office.”
Outside his house
yesterday, the MP’s
labrador, Kitty,
sniffed at
reporters as
her owner
spoke to the
press.
Parish
told of his
regrets as
he stood on
the lawn by
his orchard.
“I have an
apology to
make but I will
await the findings
of the standards
board,” he said. “I will co-
operate fully with it and then be
answerable to parliament.”
Watching porn in public should be illegal,
Janice Turner, page 29
Our Week, page 40Ex-farmer
who had
big political
ambitions
Profile
O
n Wednesday afternoon,
after prime minister’s
questions, Neil Parish
went for lunch with Sue,
his wife of 40 years, in
one of parliament’s many canteens
(Henry Zeffman writes).
Hours beforehand it had emerged
that a Conservative MP stood
accused of watching pornography in
the House of Commons chamber
and in a committee hearing.
If Parish suspected that he might
be the MP in question, he gave little
indication of it at lunch, when
witnesses said he seemed unruffled
as he joked with colleagues in the
queue for the Thai beef stir fry.
Nor was there any hint of Parish
being implicated in the scandal
later that day when he appeared on
GB News. Asked if the porn claims
revealed a deeper cultural problem
in parliament, Parish replied: “If
you’ve got 650 MPs in what is a
very intense area, you are going to
get people that step over the line. I
don’t think there’s necessarily a
huge culture here but it does have
to be dealt with and dealt with
seriously. And I think that’s what
the whips will do.”
Yesterday Parish’s prediction
came true and he was suspended by
Chris Heaton-Harris, the
government chief whip. He now
finds himself facing investigation by
parliament’s sleaze watchdog.
The opprobrium now being
rained on Parish is his biggest brush
with fame in his 12 years in the
House of Commons.
The former farmer, 65, has
focused determinedly on
environmental issues since being
elected for the safe Conservative
seat of Tiverton and Honiton in
Devon in 2010.
Weeks after coming to
Westminster, Parish joined the
environment, food and rural affairs
select committee. If his interests in
agriculture were not clear enough,
he also became chairman of the all-
party parliamentary group (APPG)
on animal welfare, and established
APPGs on beef and lamb, eggs, pigs
and poultry and dairy.
In 2015 he was elected unopposed
as the select committee’s chairman,
a role he has held ever since, a
period in which Brexit — which
Parish opposed — meant that
environmental issues rose up the
agenda.
However, friends say that Parish
had initially hoped for more from
his parliamentary career. While
new to Westminster in 2010, he had
spent a decade as a member of the
European Parliament, including
chairing its committee on
agriculture. “He was convinced he’d
come here and be farming minister
immediately,” one source said. “He
didn’t really understand that you
had to do your time.”
Rebelling against the government
to vote for a referendum on Britain’sQ&A
What is Neil Parish
accused of doing?
Two female Tory MPs
said that they had seen
a Conservative MP
watching pornography
on his phone in the
Commons chamber.What did the party do
before yesterday?
Chris Heaton-Harris, the
chief whip, asked the
female witnesses to
refer the man to
parliament’s
independent
complaints and
grievance scheme.What happened
yesterday?
Heaton-Harris
confronted Parish andthe MP referred himself
to the Commons
standards
commissioner. Heaton-
Harris then made
Parish’s name public.What is the
independent
complaints and
grievance scheme?
It was set up in 2018 to
create some semblance
of a formal HR
procedure for MPs,
peers and their staff.How do the scheme’s
inquiries work?
Investigators will report
to Kathryn Stone, the
parliamentary
commissioner for
standards. She can ask
an MP to apologise or
refer a complaint to the
Commons expert panel
for more formal
sanctions.What are the
sanctions?
If Stone considers an
offence requires more
than an apology she
will refer her findings to
the standards
committee, which can
recommend an MP be
suspended. This
requires a Commons
vote. The expert panel
can also recommend
suspension.Would Parish keep his
seat?
The expert panel and
standards committee
can each recommend
expulsion of an MP but
this last happened in- If a suspension of
more than ten days is
imposed, an MP will
face a recall petition. A
by-election is triggered
if more than 10 per cent
of constituents sign.
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— both in
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Sue Parish said she felt cross with her answerable to parliament ”
husband Neil for looking at
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