Flasher Tory Peter Bone is suspended from the Commons: Veteran MP gets six-week ban for exposing himself to young aide – meaning Rishi Sunak faces prospect of another by-election 

Rishi Sunak is facing the prospect of another fierce by-election battle after MPs tonight approved a six-week suspension for veteran backbencher Peter Bone.

The sanction against the Wellingborough MP – who continues to deny wrongdoing – came after a panel found he bullied a member of staff and committed an act of sexual misconduct.

The six-week suspension for Mr Bone, who has had the Tory whip removed, is long enough to prompt a recall petition in his Northamptonshire constituency.

If 10 per cent of local voters in Wellingborough sign a recall petition then a by-election will be called. It would be the latest in a line of votes triggered by Tory sleaze claims.

Mr Bone’s suspension was approved by the House of Commons this evening without a formal vote. 

The Prime Minister last week suffered a double humiliation as Labour stunned the Tories by overturning huge majorities to win by-election contests in Tamworth and Mid Bedfordshire.

Another by-election loss in Wellingborough, a seat last won by Labour at the 2001 general election, would spark even more panic among Mr Sunak’s fretting MPs.

Labour tonight demanded Mr Bone resign from the Commons and ‘save his constituents the disruption of a recall petition’.

‘The people of Wellingborough deserve an MP they can be proud of,’ said Lucy Powell, the party’s shadow leader of the House of Commons.

‘The country deserves the change that only Labour can bring.’

Rishi Sunak is facing the prospect of another fierce by-election battle after MPs approved a six-week suspension from the House of Commons for veteran backbencher Peter Bone

Mr Bone was first elected to Parliament at the 2005 general election and rose to prominence on the Tory back benches as a committed Brexiteer

The Prime Minister last week suffered a double humiliation as Labour stunned the Tories by overturning huge majorities to win by-election contests in Tamworth and Mid Bedfordshire

Mr Bone was first elected to Parliament at the 2005 general election and rose to prominence on the Tory back benches as a committed Brexiteer.

He briefly took on a Government role last summer when he served as deputy leader of the House of Commons during Boris Johnson’s caretaker administration, which was formed after the ex-PM announced his resignation.

Mr Bone’s majority in Wellingborough at the 2019 general election was 18,540, which in normal times would make it a very safe Tory seat.

But the Tories last week saw a majority of nearly 25,000 overturned by Labour at the Mid Bedfordshire by-election. 

Parliament’s Independent Expert Panel recommended Mr Bone’s six-week suspension from the Commons after finding he ‘committed many varied acts of bullying and one act of sexual misconduct’ against a member of his staff in 2012 and 2013.

He was said to have exposed himself on a business trip after booking them a shared hotel room and on other occasions demanded office massages, according to an IEP report.

Five allegations by a Westminster staffer were made about Mr Bone in October 2021, having had a complaint to then-prime minister Theresa May in 2017 unresolved, the panel added.

It also said the complainant was verbally abused and hit with a rolled-up document and subjected to an ‘unwanted and humiliating ritual’ where he was forced him to sit with his hands in his lap when the MP was unhappy with his work

Mr Bone said the allegations against him are ‘false and untrue’ and made by an ex-employee who made them ‘years after leaving my unemployment’.

He also suggested he was seeking legal advice.

But the panel said Mr Bone had demonstrated a ‘wilful pattern of bullying (that) also included an unwanted incident of sexual misconduct.’

The report noted: ‘The complainant was trapped in a room with the respondent in a hotel in Madrid, not knowing what was going to happen next.

‘This was a deliberate and conscious abuse of power using a sexual mechanism: indecent exposure.

‘It was woven into a pattern of inappropriate behaviour which also included requests for massages of his shoulders and neck and instructions to put hands in laps, including forcibly putting the complainant’s hands in his lap.’

Speaking to BBC News, the alleged complainant – who remains anonymous – spoke about the alleged ‘physical, emotional, psychological abuse’ he had endured.

The former aide also criticised the handling of his complaint by the Conservatives, claiming he was ‘effectively ghosted’ by the party.

They added that the experience had seen him being diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.

‘It unfortunately became this horrid, brutal, dark experience that left me a broken shell of the young man I once was,’ the alleged complainant said.

‘Peter’s behaviour was erratic. His temper was often explosive. I described it as like a, like a pendulum.

‘He would go from one type of, kind of, personality to another. It was very hard to predict. And that kind of… left me feeling quite under siege… a kind of siege mentality in terms of the relentless shouting, the screaming, the hitting.

‘The physical, emotional, psychological abuse as well as what happened later was just constantly on my mind. It was relentless to be honest.’

He also claimed he was ‘never given a clear timeline of events or even an estimated one’ regarding his complaint to the Conservatives.

‘I was left in this kind of limbo. I was effectively ghosted for three years by the party.’

A Conservative spokesperson said: ‘This case was investigated by CCHQ under the Party’s previous Code of Conduct and complaints process. However, the complainant withdrew from the process before the case was heard.

‘Under the current process, the complainant’s case would have been referred to the ICGS (Independent Complaints and Grievance Scheme) as it is a workplace matter, not a Party matter.’

Eccentric Brexiteer Peter Bone’s life and career, from namechecking his wife (until he left her for a physiotherapist 20 years his junior) to the Commons ban for bullying and sexual misconduct that is set to end Tory MP’s political career

By David Wilcock, deputy political editor for MailOnline

Peter Bone is a hardline Brexiteer who gained notoriety for repeatedly referencing his wife Jennie in the Commons.

But the mentions of ‘Mrs Bone’ – a Tory councillor namechecked by prime ministers David Cameron and Theresa May – dried up in 2018 when it was revealed that he had left her for a physiotherapist 20 years his junior.

Helen Harrison, then aged 45, was at the time married with two children. She was was a director of Grassroots Out, a campaign to leave the European Union backed by Nigel Farage. Mr Bone was also a director.

It was the latest shock move by an MP, then a father of three aged 65, known for eccentricity which extended to wearing a colourful hat in the Commons chamber to show his support for a local charity.

But while he built up a profile, certainly within Westminster if not widely outside it, his critics once accused him of trying to boost his reputation by ‘saying very little, very often’.

His six-week suspension for bullying and exposing himself to a young male aide, which was approved in a vote by his fellow MPs tonight, is almost certain to bring to an end a political career which reached a high point when he was briefly deputy Commons leader under Liz Truss last year.

He gained a reputation for mentioning ‘Mrs Bone’ – his wife and secretary Jennie – in the House of Commons, but they split in 2018 after he left her for Helen Harrison, a married physiotherapist 20 years his junior.

The couple appear to still be together, with Mrs Harrison posting pictures to social media last night showing them both campaigning with a local council candidate.

The Commons is set to rubber stamp the ban for the Wellingborough MP, 70, after an independent investigation found he carried out a campaign of bullying against a young aide.

If the suspension passes it will trigger a recall petition in the former minister’s Northamptonshire seat that could pave the way for a by-election, the latest in a line of votes triggered by Tory sleaze. Mr Bone continues to deny any wrongdoing.

The former accountant was a councillor in Essex for years before he became an MP in 2005, having tried unsuccessfully to enter parliament – both at Westminster and in Brussels – since  1992.

Once there he became known for references to Mrs Bone, who worked as his secretary. He often hailed her as an embodiment of Tory common sense, citing her approval or otherwise of key policies.

Quips included including telling the chamber of her excitement at being invited to a No10 function by David Cameron in 2012.

The previous year he had referenced her in a debate about disparate per capita public spending rates in England compared to Wales, telling a minister: ‘Yet again, Labour has left Wales in a mess, and Mrs Bone wants to know what the Prime Minister and the Secretary of State are going to do about it.’

Mr Bone is known for eccentricity which extended to wearing a colourful hat in the Commons chamber to show his support for a local charity in 2016

Mr Cameron once quipped: ‘I am fast coming to the view that Mrs Bone is insatiable.’ 

Later, she was the subject of a risqué double-entendre from Theresa May at the despatch box.

Mr Bone had asked the PM whether she would reopen a prison in Wellingborough as a birthday present in October 2016, to which the vicar’s daughter replied, to laugher: ‘I would say to my honourable friend I am very happy to wish him a very happy birthday, many happy returns.

‘I hope that Mrs Bone is going to treat the occasion in an appropriate manner.’

The racy episode had echoes of another PMQs in 2011, when Mr Bone told Mr Cameron that his wife was pleased Britain would not be involved in the bail-out of the nosediving Greek economy.

Mr Cameron replied that he felt a very big part of his life was dedicated to ‘giving pleasure to Mrs Bone’.

But in 2018 Mr Bone made the shock admission that he and Jennie had been living apart since 2016.

At a TV Brexit debate shortly before Christmas 2017, Mr Bone was accompanied by Mrs Harrison, a Conservative campaigner and former parliamentary candidate. 

In a statement at the time he said: ‘My wife and I have been living apart for more than two years, during which time I have formed a relationship with Helen Harrison.’

The couple appear to still be together, with Mrs Harrison posting pictures to social media last night showing them both campaigning with a local council candidate. 

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