Tory candidate ‘proud’ to have flasher ex-MP lover Peter Bone campaign for her
A Tory by-election candidate has said she is "proud" to have her partner and disgraced ex-MP Peter Bone as part of her campaign to replace him the Commons.
Helen Harrison also said she believed the allegations against her lover, which included exposing his genitals to a former assistant, are "untrue". It comes a fortnight after the Tories provoked outrage by selecting Ms Harrison to run to replace Mr Bone in the Commons at the Wellingborough by-election.
Mr Bone's constituents voted to kick him out of the seat last month after an inquiry found he had subjected a staff member to bullying and sexual misconduct. Parliament's Independent Expert Panel (IEP) ruled he had engaged in “a wilful pattern of bullying” which included "an unwanted incident of sexual misconduct, when the complainant was trapped in a room with the respondent in a hotel in Madrid”.
In her first comments since being picked to run for the Tories at the by-election on February 15, Ms Ms Harrison claimed the IEP had "got it wrong". The councillor told the BBC : "As Peter's partner and his supporting person through that process, I'm one of a small number of people who had seen every single bit of evidence that has been presented in that case."
Mr Bone, who lost the Tory whip after the IEP issued its findings, has been seen on the streets of Wellingborough campaigning to get his partner in the Commons.
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But Ms Harrison said she was "proud" to have Mr Bone "as part of my campaign" and claimed people were "not raising" Mr Bone's behaviour wither her. "They're talking to me about the small boats; they're talking about potholes; they're talking about their health services [and] getting more police on the beat - those issues that people are going to be voting on in this by-election," she added.
Mr Bone's constituents voted to kick him out of the seat last month after an inquiry found he had subjected a staff member to bullying and sexual misconduct. It was reported in November that Mr Bone was threatening to run as an independent in a potential Wellingborough by-election, unless his girlfriend was added to the shortlist of candidates.
It sparked fears among Tories that Mr Bone, who had a large majority of 18,540 in the 2019 election, could potentially split the Conservative vote and hand victory to Labour. At the time of Ms Harrison's selection, Labour’s Shadow Paymaster General Jonathan Ashworth said: “ Rishi Sunak caving to Peter Bone’s demand to select his partner so he doesn’t run as an independent shows just how weak the Prime Minister is. Rishi Sunak is too weak to lead his own party, let alone the country.
"The people of Wellingborough deserve the best possible candidate to represent them, not the product of a quick political fix. Only Labour can deliver the change the voters want to see and give Britain its future back.”
Mr Bone has previously said the findings by the IEP were "untrue". He said at the time of his Commons suspension: "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."
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