Neil Parish, the Conservative MP for Tiverton and Honiton, has resigned from the Commons following his admission that he watched pornography there on his phone.
The Independent reports:
The Tiverton and Honiton MP, who is a farmer, said he first watched adult content by mistake after looking at tractors on his mobile phone. However, he admitted the second time was deliberate.
“I was not proud of what I was doing,” he told BBC South West, in an interview which saw him tear up. “I’m not going to defend what I did ... it was absolutely wrong.” But he denied watching the material in a way where he hoped other people would see it.
Two female colleagues, on Tuesday, reported they had seen him looking at pornography while sitting near them.
The paper says that Parish had originally ignored calls for him to resign immediately, but had changed his mind after seeing the pain and damage it was causing his family, constituency and local association.
Labour has finished second in Tiverton and Honiton at the last few general elections, though in 2019 the Conservative majority was over 24,000.
Before 2015, however, the Liberal Democrats used to finish second and in 1997 were within less than two thousand votes of winning. Like North Shropshire, this is a seat where we are better placed to defeat the Tories than Labour is.
So a sensible arrangement would see Labour concentrating on winning back Wakefield in the by-election there while the Lib Dems head for Devon.
6 comments:
1) Tiverton & Honiton together with Somerton & Frome on the same day? Could stretch things a bit.
2) Dr Sarah Wollaston (ex Tory MP for Totnes) as the Lib Dem candidate? If so, I might even go and help.
If there are to be two by-elections - Tiverton & Honiton and Somerton & Frome - ppplllllleeeeeeeeeaaaasssseee can Peter Fleet and Neil Shastri-Hurst stand again!
2017 was a Labour blip and by 2019 it was fading rapidly as the GE saw a 7% swing from Labour to the Lib Dems. If anything it should be easier to persuade voters that the Lib Dems are the main challengers here than it was in North Shropshire.
The Somerton & Frome MP won't resign until he has been found guilty of something. I think that'll happen, but not for some time yet. Tiverton will happen in the next few weeks (as will Wakefield).
I think this maybe the first parliamentary by-election in Devon since Torrington in 1958. I'm hoping that the noble lord the former member for Rutland SW will regale us with his memories of that momentous event during his travels.
Don't forget the 1960 Tivertob byelection
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