Rishi Sunak faces new by-election nightmare as MPs vote to suspend Peter Bone

Peter Bone is the Tory MP for Wellingborough

Rishi Sunak faces another nightmarish by-election after MPs voted to exclude Peter Bone from Parliament for six weeks.

The move came after a Westminster investigation found him guilty of “numerous acts of bullying” and “sexual misconduct.”

The Independent Expert Panel (IEP) said the former minister committed the crimes against one of his staff in 2012 and 2013.

“The bullying included violence, shouting and swearing, ridicule, derogatory and degrading behavior, and exclusion,” the IEP states.

“This deliberate pattern of bullying included an unwelcome incident of sexual misconduct when the plaintiff was locked in a room with the defendant in a hotel in Madrid.

“This was a deliberate and conscious abuse of power using a sexual mechanism: public nuisance.”

Her recommendation for a six-week suspension from the House of Commons was approved in a vote by MPs this evening.

This means that a recall petition will be filed in Bones’ Wellingborough constituency.

If 10% of the constituency’s registered voters support the campaign, a by-election will be held.

Bone denied the allegations and appealed the IEP’s original decision, but it was dismissed.

In a statement last week, he said: “None of the allegations of misconduct made against me ever occurred. They are false and untrue allegations. They are without merit.”

Bone, who lost his Tory whip’s confidence, was able to defend Wellingborough in 2019 with a majority of 18,540 votes, but since then both Labour and the Liberal Democrats have won larger majorities in by-elections.

The prominent Brexit supporter has been a member of Parliament for this seat since 2005 and briefly served as Deputy Leader of the House of Commons in the government under Boris Johnson and Liz Truss.

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