• Global Courtyard: 'British Mother' Sentenced to Death for Murdering Her Husband

Who. Conservative MPs Peter Bone and Crispin Blunt have been suspended in the past week over sex scandals.

What. A dozen Tory MPs have been implicated in incidents of sexual harassment or misconduct in the last parliamentary term.

Why. Education Secretary Gillian Keegan argues that this is not "a cultural problem" of the Conservative Party, but "isolated incidents.

Westminster is renamed Pestminster these days. This is how the British Parliament is popularly known for the "plague" of sex scandals that do not cease and that mostly affect the Conservative Party, with a dozen cases accumulated in the last legislature and two very recently.

Peter Bone, 71, was still suspended for beating, verbally abusing and "putting his genitals in the face of a male worker in his parliamentary office" when the arrest of MP Crispin Blunt, 63, on charges of rape and illegal drug possession made headlines.

The two cases followed one another in a matter of hours, and the most astonishing thing is that no one in the upper echelons of the Conservative Party was torn. The reaction was more like déjà vu, as if it had been known for a long time and the only thing missing was the final confirmation or the mea culpa of those involved (given the open secrecy that usually surrounds these cases).

The most ironic thing is that it was a woman, the Secretary of Education, Gillian Keegan, who had to say publicly that we are not facing "a cultural problem" of the Tories, but "isolated incidents". In his view, the suspension of the two MPs is simply due to the "clarity" with which Prime MinisterRishi Sunak is maintaining the "high standards" among his co-religionists.

Another rooster crowed in 2017, when Theresa May was prime minister and took matters into her own hands in the face of another wave of scandals at the height of the #MeToo. May wrote directly to the Speaker of the House of Commons, the irate John Bercow, and asked him to set up a "mediation" and support service, in the face of possible allegations of sexual harassment against MPs, as well as an urgent reform of disciplinary measures.

With the arrival of Boris Johnson, a thick veil was drawn over sex scandals, and it was precisely his decision to promote Chris Pincher - suspended some time later for "touching" two men when he was drunk in a private club - that ultimately led to his downfall in the midst of the Partygate storm.

The choppy waters of the Tories are back in full swing, and here we have the champion of the hard-line and ardent Brexiteer, Peter Bone, digging his political grave. The lurid incident dates back to 2013 and has taken a whopping ten years to reach the conclusion of the Independent Panel of Experts, finally charged with "repeated acts of harassment and one of sexual misconduct".

The coveted object of his wrath and desire was "a male member of his staff" with whom he shared a hotel room during a work trip and to whom he unabashedly removed his towel, with the result of "exposure" in the face and when the two were in the bathroom. When he did not agree to his advances, Bone retaliated on his subordinate by isolating and humiliating him in the parliamentary office, and even "throwing objects at him on a number of occasions".

Peter Bone's scandal gave way in a few hours to that of his co-religionist Crispin Blunt, uncle of actress Emily Blunt. Police reported the arrest of a deputy for rape and drug possession, and Blunt himself came forward, said it was him and expressed confidence that he would be acquitted and "without charges" when the investigation is over.

For the time being, it has been suspended and has opened the door to the possibility of new special elections such as those held just ten days ago and which led to the collapse of the conservatives, at their lowest moments.

Although there have also been at least two cases among Labour, Tory MPs are certainly taking the cake in this rocky legislature. In 2020, Charlie Elphicke was sentenced to two years in prison on three counts of sexual assault of two women. A year later it was the turn of Imran Ahmad Khan, sentenced to 18 months for "sexual assault" of a 15-year-old boy.

Also in 2021, David Burton was accused of sexual harassment by three women and Julian Knight was temporarily expelled from the parliamentary group for another case of sexual misconduct. Rob Roberts also left the Conservative Party and now takes his seat as an independent after being accused and suspended for "unwanted sexual advances" by a male worker in his office.

Another Conservative MP was also arrested in May 2022 for sexual assault and rape, although he has not yet been charged and his case is under investigation. His name has still not been made public after a year and a half thanks to a law on the privacy of his Lordships passed in 2016.

  • United Kingdom
  • Europe
  • Global Courtyard
  • Articles Carlos Fresneda