6 Monday May 2 2022 | the times
News
The Tories must select a woman to suc-
ceed Neil Parish after he admitted
watching pornography in the Com-
mons, a senior MP has said.
Caroline Nokes, chairwoman of the
equalities committee, said the Con-
servatives could display “real evidence
of change” if they ensured their candi-
date in the impending Tiverton &
Honiton by-election was a woman.
Parish, 65, announced on Saturday
that he would step down after watching
porn in a “moment of madness”. He said
he accessed the website by accident
while looking at tractors but returned
to it deliberately.
A by-election is to be held in his
Devon constituency, an ultra-safe seat
for the Tories. Nokes, a former minister,
told The Times: “It would be real evi-
dence of change if the Conservatives
made sure they selected a local woman
as the candidate for the by-election.
“Conservative women like Trudy
Harrison [the member for Copeland
elected in 2017] and Jill Mortimer [the
Hartlepool MP chosen last year] are
proof that they can win by-elections
and then be great parliamentarians. It’s
time to seize that moment.”
Another influential Conservative
woman said: “In a place like Tiverton
which has been vacated for this reason
you have got to have a woman, surely.”
She questioned why when Cheryl
Gillan, the former cabinet minister,
died last year the party’s candidate in
the resultant Chesham & Amersham
by-election was a man. The Conserva-
tives lost the seat to the Liberal Demo-
crats.
Peter Fleet, the losing Tory candi-
date, was chosen to stand by local party
members with more than 50 per cent of
the vote from a shortlist whose other
members were both women. The party
turned down Nikki da Costa, the
former director of legislative affairs at
No 10, and Olivia Seccombe, head of
external affairs at the National Farm-
ers’ Union.
“It’s as much about educating asso-
ciations as it is anything to do with
CCHQ [Conservative Campaign
Headquarters],” the source said.
Oliver Dowden, the Conservative
Party chairman, said yesterday that he
wanted half of all the party’s MPs to be
women. He told The Sunday Telegraph:
“I think the single best thing I can do as
chairman of the Conservative Party is
make sure that we select more good
Four Conservative MPs have claimed
that Angela Rayner was the origin of
stories that she had been using her legs
to distract Boris Johnson, it was report-
ed yesterday.
Amid a continuation of the row
between Labour’s deputy leader and
The Mail on Sunday, the newspaper
claimed that four Tory MPs have told
party whips that Rayner compared her-
self to Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct in
a conversation with them on the Com-
mons terrace.
Labour rejected the suggestion that
the deputy leader of the opposition had
initiated “vile sexist smears”.
A Conservative source told the BBC
Rayner had “made the comments” to
an unnamed Tory MP, who passed
them on to The Mail on Sunday.
The Conservatives had reportedly
concluded their investigation into the
matter. A senior party source said:Conservatives claim Rayner
“Following the Mail on Sunday Rayner
story [published last week] queries were
made about who the Conservative MP
was that supposedly made the com-
ments. During those queries it was
found that Rayner had made the com-
ments [to the MP] herself.”
In response, a Labour source said:
“The idea that Angela initiated these
vile sexist smears shows just how far
Conservative MPs will go to avoid talk-
ing about tackling the cost of living.”
It has emerged that Rayner first
spoke about the fact she was being
accused of imitating Sharon Stone’s fa-
mous scene from Basic Instinct in a pod-
cast with Matt Forde on January 26.
Rayner, speaking at an event with the
comedian, said: “There is a tint of miso-
gyny in it. I’ve gotta say it.
“Every time I do a PMQs [prime min-
ister’s questions] somebody has an
opinion on what I wear. Did you see the
meme about Sharon Stone like I was
doing it at PMQs? I was mortified.”Charlie MoloneyA Labour MP was “regularly touched
up” when he first joined parliament by
older colleagues who had not come out
as gay, he said.
Chris Bryant’s comments follow a se-
ries of scandals over the behaviour of
MPs, leading to a call for a culture
change in Westminster.
Bryant told LBC Radio: “I remember
when I came in, in 2001, I was regularly
touched up by older, senior gay — well,
they weren’t out, but — MPs.
“I never felt I was able to report it
because you end up being part of the
story, and that’s the last thing you want.
And I think a lot of women have been
through that.”
Though Bryant said he could think of
four MPs, he did not name them. He
added: “I was shocked at the
time... none of them are out, of course.
I think that now if anybody would do
that I would be absolutely robust. I
Bryant: Colleagues touched me up
would call the person out immediately
and I would make a complaint.”
Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the Commons
Speaker, is calling for “radical” reform
to working practices after a string of
bullying and sexual misconduct offen-
ces involving MPs.
They have prompted women work-ing in Westminster to share accounts of
their treatment.
The Sunday Times carried a report
describing drunken and disorderly be-
haviour, including a senior MP accused
of repeatedly licking the faces of re-
searchers in parliamentary bars.
A minister being overheard fre-quently having “noisy sex” in his parlia-
mentary office, an MP being warned
over his use of prostitutes, and a female
Tory being sent a “dick pic” by a col-
league were also detailed.
Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader,
called for “political leadership” from
Boris Johnson to fix the problem
“because the fish rots from the head”.
Anne-Marie Trevelyan, the inter-
national trade secretary, said this week
that she had once been “pinned up
against a wall” by a former MP. Suella
Braverman, the attorney-general, said
some men acted like “animals”.
A slew of misconduct allegations
against MPs have been made in recent
years. Liam Byrne, a senior Labour MP,
is set to be suspended from the Com-
mons for two days for bullying a
member of staff.
Imran Ahmad Khan had the Con-
servative whip suspended before he re-
signed after being convicted last month
of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy.Charlie Moloney
Chris Bryant felt
unable to report
unwanted contactNews Politics
Neil Parish on a Dominator
combine harvester. The Tory
MP said he was searching for
tractors when he accidentally
opened a porn site. Kwasi
Kwarteng said that despite
a few bad apples the culture
of the Conservative Party
was not misogynisticTory rift over call for woman
Henry Zeffman
Associate Political Editor
female members of parliament so that
the membership of the [parliamentary]
Conservative Party reflects the wider
country.”
Boris Johnson first made the pledge
in November 2019.
One Conservative MP questioned,
however, whether Dowden’s stance was
the correct response to the Parish scan-
dal. Nusrat Ghani told Times Radio: “I
have mixed feelings about this. Instead
of focusing on the protagonist, we are
now focusing on women. I understand
what Oliver is trying to do [but] I don’t
think the solution to reducing miso-
gyny in parliament is we need more
women in parliament — maybe we
should deal with the sexist individuals.”
Kwasi Kwarteng, the business secre-
tary, said he did not believe the Tories
should introduce all-women shortlists
to meet Dowden’s pledge. “I’ve never
been a fan... of quotas and shortlists,”
he told Sky News. “I’ve never advocated
that but obviously we should do all we
can to see how we can get more women
and more people from diverse back-
grounds into politics.”
Asked about claims that the party
was institutionally sexist, Kwarteng
told Times Radio: “There are some bad
apples... but the idea that we can tar-
nish a whole institution with that brush
I think is wrong.
“My view is that there are bad apples.
When people have behaved badly,
when there’s misconduct, they should
be sanctioned and punished. But that
doesn’t mean that the entire culture is
extremely misogynistic or full of male
entitlement. I don’t recognise that.”
Kwarteng said Parish resigned
because “he realised that his position
couldn’t be sustained”.
The head of parliament’s independ-
ent watchdog for sexual harassment
and bullying has played down the scale
of misconduct by MPs after 56 were
reported to be under investigation.
Jo Willows, director of the Independ-
ent Complaints and Grievance
Scheme, told MPs there was a “similar
trend” to last year when 15 cases were
opened against MPs for bullying, har-
assment or sexual misconduct.
In an email seen by The Times,
Willows said she would not usually give
a running commentary but she had
chosen to intervene on “an exceptional
basis given the scale of speculation”.
Misogyny does not merit same fury as
Putin bloodbath, Trevor Phillips, page 24
Westminster’s sleaze, letters, page 26
MPs unwilling to uphold standards,
leading article, page 27