THE Tories know a thing or two about brass necks.
Take Andrew Bowie, the Conservative MP who attacked Nicola Sturgeon for both wanting to unite communities and wanting a “divisive” indyref.
Any mention of the actual deep-felt division caused by Brexit is of course, summarily ignored.
Or the Scottish wing of the party’s proposals for a “countryside education day”, amid claims the SNP have ignored rural communities.
Again, that education day would likely ignore any of the significant impacts of Brexit on those communities.
But it takes a special kind of polish to produce the brass neck on Neil Parish, the Tory MP who has referred himself to the standards watchdog amid accusations he watched porn in the House of Commons.
Other than being a monumentally silly thing to do for a number of reasons (not least that Commons proceedings are constantly being filmed), Parish has done little to assuage accusations of a cult(ure) of misogyny at Westminster.
For some bizarre reason known only to self-promoting Tory MPs desperate for a little media attention, Parish actually went on TV and discussed the porn scandal before he was named as the man at its centre.
Appearing on – where else – GB News, Parish was asked for his reaction to the “jaw-dropping” allegations.
“I think the whip’s office will do a very thorough investigation and we will wait and see that result and I think from that the decision will have to be made what action to be taken," he said.
Addressing the issue of a cultural problem inside parliament, Parish went on: “I think you’ve got sort of 650 members of parliament in what is a very intense area you are going to get people that step over the line.
“Is it… I don’t think there’s necessarily a huge culture here but it does have to be dealt with and dealt with seriously and I think that’s what the whips will do in our whips office.”
Treading close to the line, Parish even tweeted a clip of himself taking part in that GB News interview (although it was cut off before he spoke about the porn scandal).
Parish, who has had the Tory whip removed, has insisted he will continue with his duties as the MP for Tiverton and Honiton while any investigation is ongoing.
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