April 30 (UPI) — Conservative member of British Parliament Neil Parish announced Saturday that he will resign after admitting to watching porn twice at work.
Parish, 65, who has represented the Tiverton and Honiton constituency in Devon, England, since 2010, told the BBC and The Guardian he will resign.
“That was deliberate … that was sitting waiting to vote on the side of the chamber,” Parish told the BBC of the second time. “What I did was absolutely totally wrong.
“I was wrong, I was stupid, I lost sense of mind,” he added, in response to the fallout from the incident.
Parish had previously said he would remain an MP while the incident was under investigation, but after calls for him to resign, he changed his mind overnight.
“We would like to take this opportunity to thank Neil Parish for his service to our communities over the past 12 years,” a spokesperson for Tiverton and Honiton Conservatives said.
Parish had been suspended after accusations that he watched pornography in the House of Commons surfaced earlier this week.
Two female MPs reported to chief whip Chris Heaton-Harris on Tuesday at a meeting that they had seen Parish view the inappropriate content on his phone in the House of Commons chamber and in a committee meeting.
Parish was described only as a male MP to the public at that time.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Thursday the behavior was “totally unacceptable.”
Also, on Thursday, Health Secretary Sajid Javid tweeted that the culture “needs to change,” in light of “several instances of inappropriate and sexist behavior recently in Parliament.”
“It is shameful,” he added. “Parliamentarians are public servants and it is their duty to set an example of character and integrity. The culture of Westminster needs to change.”
