A Conservative MP is facing a six-week suspension from the House of Commons over allegations of bullying and sexual misconduct against a staff member.
A report by parliament’s Independent Expert Panel (IEP) found that Peter Bone “trapped” a member of staff in a room where he exposed himself – in what the panel said was a “deliberate and conscious abuse of power”.
Mr Bone, the MP for Wellingborough, “committed many varied acts of bullying and one act of sexual misconduct” against a member of his staff in 2012 and 2013, the panel said.
It recommended that he be suspended from the House of Commons for six weeks – paving the way for another potential by-election and headache for Rishi Sunak.
The prime minister is already facing calls to remove the whip from Mr Bone, which would force him to sit as an independent MP in the Commons.
In a statement, Mr Bone, 70, dismissed the IEP report as false and untrue.
“As I have maintained throughout these proceedings, none of the misconduct allegations against me ever took place,” he said.
“They are false and untrue claims. They are without foundation.”
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Writing on social media, Mr Bone, who was appointed deputy leader of the House of Commons by Boris Johnson, said the Independent Complaints and Grievance Scheme (ICGS) investigation into him “was flawed, procedurally unfair and didn’t comply with its own rules and regulations”.
Five allegations by a Westminster staffer were made in October 2021 after a complaint made to then prime minister Theresa May in 2017 went unresolved, the IEP said.
The complaints included four allegations of bullying, detailing that Mr Bone “verbally belittled, ridiculed, abused and humiliated” his employee and “repeatedly physically struck and threw things” at him.
The report said Mr Bone also imposed an “unwanted and humiliating ritual” on him by forcing him to sit with his hands in his lap when he was unhappy with his work and that he ostracised his staff member following an incident on a work trip to Madrid.
The complainant also alleged that Mr Bone had “repeatedly pressurised” the member of staff to give him a massage in the office and, on a visit to Madrid with the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Human Trafficking, indecently exposed himself to the complainant in the bathroom and bedroom of the hotel room they were sharing.
In its findings, the IEP said: “This is a serious case of misconduct. The bullying involved violence, shouting and swearing, mocking, belittling and humiliating behaviour, and ostracism.
“This wilful pattern of bullying also included an unwanted incident of sexual misconduct, when the complainant was trapped in a room with the respondent in a hotel in Madrid. This was a deliberate and conscious abuse of power using a sexual mechanism: indecent exposure.”
Following an investigation, the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner upheld all four allegations of bullying and the allegation of sexual misconduct relating to the incident in Spain. However, he found the demands for massages were bullying, not sexual misconduct.
Mr Bone appealed against the decision but this was dismissed.
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In response to the report’s findings, Mr Bone said the complainant had not raised the issues during their employment and said ICGS rules meant he could not “detail my views on the huge inconsistencies and lack of evidence in the allegations”.
He claimed the ICGS investigation was “procedurally unfair” and that he was “discussing with lawyers what action could and should be taken”.
Mr Bone will now face a vote in the Commons on the six-week suspension.
If approved by MPs, the suspension could lead to him facing a recall petition. If 10% of eligible and registered voters sign it, it would trigger a by-election in his Wellingborough seat, where he has a majority of 18,540.
Liberal Democrat chief whip Wendy Chamberlain urged Mr Sunak to remove the whip from Mr Bone so he can no longer sit as Conservative MP.
“Rishi Sunak needs to remove the whip from Peter Bone and call on him to resign,” she said.
“There is no place anywhere in our society for this kind of sexual harassment and bullying.”
