Neil Parish, British Conservative MP for Tiverton and Honiton, in Devon, first elected in 2010, has resigned after admitting watching pornography in the House of Commons in what he described as a “moment of madness”.
“I’m not going to defend it... I think I must have taken complete leave of my senses and my sensibilities and my sense of decency and everything.”
Fighting to hold back tears in his first TV interview since the scandal broke, Mr Parish said that he had looked at adult material twice, the first time stumbling on a porn website while looking for tractors online, but returning deliberately on the second occasion.
“The situation was that – funnily enough it was tractors I was looking at. I did get into another website that had a very similar name and I watched it for a bit which I shouldn’t have done..."
“My crime – my biggest crime – is that on another occasion, I went in a second time. That was deliberate. That was sitting waiting to vote on the side of the chamber, on the side door as you enter back into the lobbies.”
Two unnamed female Conservative MPs said earlier this week they had seen a male colleague watching porn while sitting on the Commons benches.
Before he was identified senior Tories, including the attorney general, condemned his actions, and suspended him from the Conservative Whip pending the outcome of an investigation.
After initially indicating on Friday that he hoped to remain in his seat, the resignation announcement came as a dramatic change of heart from Mr Parish.
The opposition Labour...