MP Peter Bone has Tory whip suspended after report found he flashed to an aide
A Tory MP who flashed an aide trapped in his hotel room has been stripped of the Conservative whip.
Peter Bone, 70, was hit with the sanction 24 hours after it emerged he faces a six-week ban from the Commons for bullying and sexual misconduct against a member of staff - paving the way for another crunch by-election.
A Commons sleaze watchdog found he repeatedly asked his researcher to give him massages and threw pens and other office equipment at him. In one incident, Mr Bone is alleged to have struck the aide on the back of his head and told him: “You’re having a thick day and I thought that would help.”
The report said: “As the complainant explained in his evidence: ‘There was a sense of a king who expected people to serve him in all sorts of ways.’” According to the IEP's report, the victim’s father wrote to then-PM David Cameron in December 2015 to complain about Mr Bone's conduct.
The 49-page report also stated there had been "an unwanted incident of sexual misconduct" in a hotel room during a January 2013 trip to Madrid with the Parliamentary Group on Human Trafficking. It said Mr Bone "tried to keep the beds together and once in the bathroom exposed his genitals close to the complainant's face". The aide had quit before the visit and was working his notice.
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The victim himself complained to then PM Theresa May in November 2017 under the Conservative Party ’s code of conduct. But after four years it had still not been resolved so he turned to the parliamentary authorities to investigate in October 2021.
A Conservative spokesman said the “was investigated”by the party but “the complainant withdrew from the process before the case was heard”. But on Tuesday a spokeswoman for Chief Whip Simon Hart said: "Following a report by the Independent Expert Panel, the Chief Whip has removed the conservative whip from Peter Bone MP."
Defiant Mr Bone has insisted: "As I have maintained throughout these proceedings, none of the misconduct allegations against me ever took place. “They are false and untrue claims. They are without foundation."
The investigator found the victim’s evidence “compelling, nuanced and plausible”, says the report. In total, the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards upheld five allegations of bullying and one of sexual misconduct. The IEP panel recommended a six-week suspension from Parliament. The ban would be enough to trigger a recall petition in his seat of Wellingborough, Northants, and potentially force a by-election. The Conservatives won the seat with a 18,540 majority at the last general election.
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