A Male Conservative Member of Parliament in the UK parliament has been accused of watching pornography on his phone inside the House of Commons. A female minister and other Tory women MPs have complained to Conservative chief whip Chris Heaton-Harris who is investigating reports regarding the same.
The news broke when on Wednesday, Chris Heaton-Harris’s office issued a statement of him investigating that a Tory frontbencher watched a porn clip on his phone in the Commons chamber. A statement said, “The chief whip is looking into this matter. This behaviour is wholly unacceptable and action will be taken.” According to three different sources, around twelve women Tory MPs at the meeting with Heaton-Harris alleged instances of sexism and harassment by their colleagues.
The meeting between 40-50 Tory known as the ‘2022 group’, was attended by chief whip Chris Heaton-Harris, Tory party chair Oliver Dowden and House of Commons leader Mark Spencer in Westminster on Monday. The meeting included a few male MPs as well, who raised concerns that the ‘toxic atmosphere within the party could put women off standing for Parliament’. Apparently, Theresa May, the former Prime Minister looked on ‘with a face like thunder’ while hearing some of the testimonies.
The team which was listening to the grave concerns of women MPs from the Conservative Party was reportedly not expecting such hideous behaviour from its members. One MP who attended the meeting said “We were genuinely shocked and horrified. We must realise that there are serious issues they need to address.”
Commenting on the incident Tory MP Brendan Clarke-Smith said, “That’s unacceptable in any workplace really. If somebody has done that then quite rightly I would expect there to be some consequences for that.”
The misogynistic comment on Labour MP Angela Rayner
The controversy over escalated misogyny among the Conservative Party comes days after Labour deputy leader, Angela Rayner complained that a Tory MP accused her of ‘crossing and uncrossing her legs’ to distract Boris Johnson at prime minister’s questions. The MP apparently compared the act with the character played by Sharon Stone in the film ‘Basic Instinct’.
As much as I disagree with @AngelaRayner on almost every political issue I respect her as a parliamentarian and deplore the misogyny directed at her anonymously today.
— Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) April 24, 2022
The news sparked outrage across the political spectrum while British PM Boris Johnson was grilled over the rising sexism in his party. Rayner said, “I feel like I’m being judged for what I wear, rather than what I’m saying to you.” Earlier the reports of 56 MPs, including three Cabinet ministers, facing allegations of sexual misconduct were submitted to Parliament’s Independent Complaints and Grievance scheme.
