Neil Parish: he’s a good person, says wife of ‘porn Tory’

Asked if she was aware of her husband having done anything similar before, she said: “No. He’s quite a normal guy, really. He’s a lovely person. It’s just so stupid.”

Parish said that he had wanted to tell his wife earlier but had been stuck at his constituency surgery in Honiton and his telephone battery went flat. He was then stuck in traffic on the M5.

His official line is that he is referring himself to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards and that he will co-operate fully, but speaking outside his home he was apologetic.

“It was a complete mistake and I will man up to it as they say. My main concern at the moment is my very supportive wife,” the MP said.

He said that he had “no recollection” about the kind of pornography he had been watching and declined to comment on how many occasions he had viewed it while in parliament.

His wife said that she felt cross about him looking at pornography and that she understood why other women would too. “People shouldn’t be looking at pornography. He would never just sit there with people looking. He would never just do that knowing [people were looking]. These ladies were quite right to be as cross as they were because I was cross, too.”

The allegations first emerged earlier this week when two female Tory MPs said during a meeting of the 2022 group, which aims to increase gender equality in the party, that they had seen a male colleague watching pornography — both in the Commons and during a committee hearing.

“I’ve just no idea what happens in these circumstances,” Sue Parish said yesterday. “I don’t know whether it’s ever happened before.”

She said that she did not understand the attraction of pornography but knew that it was commonplace. “If you were mad with every man who looked at pornography, I think there would be very few men in the world who have not had their wives going on at them.

“I don’t understand [the attraction of] it. I’m a woman. Hence why the women were so cross. It’s degrading. It’s demeaning. But on the other hand it takes two to tango. There must be women posing for all this.”

A chorister in the local choir, she said that she worked for her husband two days a week but was unsure for how much longer that would continue. “I worked [there]. I suspect it’s in the past tense.”

She suggested that their marriage was strong enough to withstand the row, even if his career may not be.

“I think it would be a bit stupid [to let it come between us]. As I say, I’m fairly tough. You’ve got to carry on, haven’t you? Where that leaves [his career] . . . What’s going to happen? I’ve got no idea. It depends on what Chris Heaton-Harris [the Tory chief whip] says, I suppose. I don’t think it’s going to carry on, is it? It’s so stupid. He’s such a good MP. He’s such a good person.”

As she was speaking, a spokesman for Heaton-Harris announced that Parish has been suspended from the Conservative whip.

Parish said that he would continue to serve his constituents and conduct surgeries, even though the whip had been withdrawn. He has served as MP for the area since being elected in 2010 and his most senior appointment was as chairman of the environment committee.

Parish became an MP at the 2010 general election

On his website, he describes his support for charities such as the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association.

Earlier this week, Parish gave a television interview in which he said the whips’ office would undertake a “thorough investigation” into the then unknown MP accused of watching porn and said “we will wait and see that result”.

Appearing on GB News, he was asked whether the accused should have the whip removed.

He said: “I think the whips’ office will do a thorough investigation and we will wait and see that result and I think you know, from that, then the decision will have to be made.”

Asked whether there was a cultural problem in Westminster, Parish said parliament was a “very intense” area.

“I mean, you are going to get people that step over the line,” he said.

“I don’t think there’s necessarily a huge culture here, but I think it does have to be dealt with and dealt with seriously and I think, you know, that’s what the whips will do in our whips’ office.”

Outside his house yesterday, the MP’s labrador, Kitty, sniffed at reporters as her owner spoke to the press.

Parish told of his regrets as he stood on the lawn by his orchard.

“I have an apology to make but I will await the findings of the standards board,” he said. “I will co-operate fully with it and then be answerable to parliament.”