A TORY MP should apologise to the Commons for bullying parliamentary staff, a disciplinary panel has said.
Shrewsbury and Atcham MP Daniel Kawczynski acted in an “intimidatory and threatening manner” towards staff as they failed to resolve technical difficulties which prevented him from attending a digital committee meeting.
The Independent Expert Panel (IEP), which decides on punishments in cases of breaching Parliament’s Bullying and Harassment Policy, ordered the MP to apologise in the Commons.
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Sir Stephen Irwin, chairman of the IEP said: “We accept that the circumstances which arose on 27 April 2020 were difficult. But they were difficult for everyone.
“Whilst we fully grasp that the life of an MP can be highly pressurised, these responsibilities and stresses do not justify a loss of courtesy, an exaggerated sense of importance or entitlement, or bullying.”
Last year Kawczynski faced calls to be suspended after speaking at a far-right conference with the likes of Hungarian PM Viktor Orban and Italy's former deputy PM Matteo Salvini.
Labour accused the MP of associating with "anti-Semites, Islamophobes and homophobes" but Kawczynski called the party's reaction "hysterical".
"I am not Hungarian or Italian and both leaders have been elected on huge popular mandates in their countries," he wrote in The Spectator. "They represent serious ideas and concerns, some of which are shared by people in Britain."
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