Anti-LGBTQ+ Tory MP Peter Bone facing suspension over bullying and sexual misconduct allegations
MP with anti-LGBTQ+ voting record facing suspension over sexual misconduct and bullying allegations (JORAS/Getty Images)
Tory MP Peter Bone is facing a six-week suspension from the House of Commons over allegations of sexual misconduct and bullying.
The MP for Wellingborough, who has consistently voted against LGBTQ+ rights legislation, was found to have “committed many varied acts of bullying and one act of sexual misconduct” against a member of his staff in 2012 and 2013, according to a report by parliament’s Independent Expert Panel (IEP).
The IEP report found that Bone, 70, allegedly “trapped” a member of staff in a hotel room, before he exposed himself, also engaging in a “wilful pattern of bullying” against the employee.
Bone has denied the allegations.
The panel described the alleged sexual misconduct as a “deliberate and conscious abuse of power”.
It is now recommended that Bone be suspended from the House of Commons for six weeks.
In a statement shared on Twitter, Bone denied the allegations, stating that they are “false and untrue claims… without foundation”.
“As I have maintained throughout these proceedings, none of the misconduct allegations against me ever took place,” he said.
The allegations against Bone were made by a Westminster staffer in October 2021.
The IEP report detailed four claims of bullying and one of sexual misconduct, alleging that Bone had “verbally belittled, ridiculed, abused and humiliated” an employee, and “repeatedly physically struck and threw things” at him.
The allegations also included claims that Bone had “repeatedly pressurised” the employee to give him a massage in the office, and that on a business trip to Madrid, had exposed himself to the employee in the hotel room they were sharing.
“This is a serious case of misconduct. The bullying involved violence, shouting and swearing, mocking, belittling and humiliating behaviour, and ostracism,” the IEP report read.
“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.”
Bone has denied all of the allegations made against him. He will now face a vote in the House of Commons on the six-week suspension.
Peter Bone has consistently voted against legalising same-sex marriage – in Britain, Northern Ireland, and for armed forces personnel outside the UK – describing marriage equality as “completely nuts”.
He has also railed against trans people who use NHS fertility treatment and demanded the BBC censor a show about trans kids.
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