The Conservative Party’s chief whip is investigating reports that a Tory MP watched pornography on his phone in the Commons chamber.
The party’s whips office said “the chief whip is looking into this matter” in a statement released on Wednesday.
“This behaviour is wholly unacceptable and action will be taken.”
It is believed the accusation was made during a meeting of the 2022 yesterday – the female grouping of the 1922 group of Conservative backbench MPs.
Around 50 to 60 female Conservative MPs are said to have been present at the meeting.
Sky News understands that two individuals in attendance told Chief Whip Chris Heaton-Harris how they had witnessed an MP watching pornography both in the chamber and in a committee.
It comes in response to reports in The Sun and Daily Mirror that the MP – reported to be a Tory frontbencher – was watching pornography on a mobile phone while sitting alongside a female minister.
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One MP in attendance told Sky News that Mr Heaton-Harris looked “horrified” and asked for the man’s identity.
According to Sky News’ political editor Beth Rigby, the women have subsequently spoken to the chief whip and named the man.
The Mirror newspaper reports that those also in attendance at the meeting included Tory party chairman Oliver Dowden, Commons Leader Mark Spencer and former prime minister Theresa May.
The meeting came amid reports that 56 MPs, including three Cabinet ministers, are facing allegations of sexual misconduct referred to the Independent Complaints and Grievances Scheme (ICGS).
The scheme was set up in the aftermath of the #MeToo movement and is Parliament’s mechanism for handling complaints of bullying, harassment or sexual misconduct.
The Sunday Times newspaper reported over the weekend that the 56 MPs face allegations ranging from making sexually inappropriate comments to more serious wrongdoing.
Appearing on Sky News’ Ridge on Sunday programme last weekend, Conservative Party chairman Mr Dowden was asked if Westminster is a safe place to be a woman.
“I think actually we’ve made big improvements over the past 20 or 30 years,” he said.
“Some of the things that happened, I’m sure, when you were a young reporter and when I started out in Westminster certainly wouldn’t happen now, and I think that’s something that has improved very much for the better.”
But Labour’s Tulip Siddiq, the shadow economic secretary to the treasury, said there needed to be a “zero tolerance” approach to harassment by MPs and those “abusing their position for sexual favours or to manipulate staff”.
Also on Sunday, Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner felt compelled to condemn a “sexist” and “misogynistic” Mail on Sunday article which claimed Tory MPs have accused her of a ‘Basic Instinct’ ploy to distract Boris Johnson.
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The story, which reported that Conservative MPs have accused Labour’s deputy leader of deliberately distracting Mr Johnson by crossing and uncrossing her legs, has received a huge backlash following its publication.
In response to the article in last weekend’s Mail on Sunday, the prime minister tweeted that he respected Ms Rayner and deplored the “misogyny directed at her anonymously today“.
Meanwhile, the editor of the Mail on Sunday on Wednesday morning refused to meet the Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle over the newspaper’s “misogynistic” report.
David Dillon declined an invitation to meet Sir Lindsay Hoyle to discuss anonymous claims published in the newspaper, stating in a letter he would not be attending the meeting because journalists should “not take instruction from officials of the House of Commons, however august they may be”.
