A TORY MP who was watching porn in the Commons has formally quit as a parliamentarian.
Neil Parish, who initially claimed he was trying to search for 'dominator' tractors when he stumbled across pornography on his mobile phone while sitting in the Commons, has handed his resignation to the Treasury.
The department confirmed it has been accepted, which will now trigger a by-election in his seat of Tiverton and Honiton.
It comes the day after Imran Khan quit as an MP formally, having been convicted of child sex offences.
Mr Parish has been appointed the steward of the Manor of Northstead - a legal title which allows him to resign as an MP, and has no other purpose.
A statement from the Treasury said: “The Chancellor of the Exchequer has this day appointed Neil Quentin Gordon Parish to be Steward and Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead.”
Mr Parish, 65, was left red-faced after a female MP claimed she had seen him watching the lewd video in the Commons chamber during a debate. After days of speculation about who the MP was who had been responsible, Mr Parish was revealed to be the culprit.
Initially he said he would hang on in his seat until an investigation had been carried out, however then acknowledged he had watched pornography more than once and made the decision to resign.
His wife of 40 years said the saga was "all very embarrassing" but insisted she was standing by her husband, adding that there would not be "many wives left" if every woman broke up with her husband for watching porn.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here