Brexiteer MP who ‘exposed himself to aide and locked him in bathroom’ loses Tory whip

Peter Bone has been stripped of the Conservative whip removed after he was found to have indecently exposed himself to a staff member and trapped him in the bathroom of a hotel room.

Parliament’s standards chief upheld five claims of bullying and one of sexual misconduct against the leading Brexit backer and recommended a lengthy suspension.

A spokeswoman for the Tory chief whip Simon Hart said Mr Bone – who faces a possible by-election in his Wellingborough and Rushden seat – would no longer sit with the party in the Commons.

The six-week suspension recommended by the Independent Expert Panel (IEP) would trigger a recall petition if approved by MPs – creating yet another by-election headache for Rishi Sunak.

Mr Bone was found by the parliamentary complaints watchdog to have “committed many varied acts of bullying and one act of sexual misconduct” against a staff member in 2012 and 2013.

The standards commissioner also said the MP – who has denied all misconduct claims and attacked the watchdog’s “flawed” investigation – had indecently exposed himself to the complainant on an overseas trip.

The IEP report also found that the veteran MP, , one of the most outspoken pro-Brexit Conservatives, was also found to have “repeatedly pressurised [the complainant] to give him a massage in the office”.

The report detailed how Mr Bone booked a single hotel room for himself and the complainant during a work trip in Spain, which one staffer told The Independent is extremely unusual.

Mr Bone then became angry when the complainant separated the two single beds in the room before engineering a situation in which the complainant was “confronted by his penis at very close quarters”, the report said.

In a statement posted on Twitter/X, Mr Bone said the allegations were “false” and “without foundation”, adding: “None of the misconduct allegations against me ever took place.”

Mr Bone indicated he would fight the suspension, saying it has been “an honour” to represent his constituents and “I will continue to represent them to the best of my ability.”

He accused the parliamentary watchdog’s investigation of being “flawed and procedurally unfair”. “I am currently in discussion with lawyers what action could and should be taken,” he added.

A six-week suspension, if approved by MPs, would trigger a recall petition. If 10 per cent of Mr Bone’s constituents vote for a by-election, one would take place several weeks later.

It would set up the latest in a series of demoralising by-elections for Mr Sunak in safe Conservative seats, with the party lagging far behind Labour in the polls.

Mr Bone has an 18,000 majority in the East Midlands seat, smaller than that overturned by Labour MP Keir Mather in Selby in north Yorkshire in July.

His recommended suspension comes days before Mr Sunak faces key by-elections in Mid Bedfordshire and Tamworth – with voters able to give their verdict on the government’s performance.

A leaked Tory memo revealed that party officials expect to lose half their vote share at the two by-elections this week – putting them course for poentially embarrassing defeats despite huge majorities.

The document written for Tory chairman Greg Hands predicts the Tories would win between 28 per cent and 33 per cent of the vote in Tamworth.

And in Mid Bedfordshire, they expect their vote share to be cut to 29 per cent. Parties try to manage expectations ahead of such contests and the document may have been written with the intention of being leaked.