Tories Choose Partner Of Disgraced Ex-MP Peter Bone To Replace Him In Parliament

The Conservative Party has chosen the partner of former Tory MP Peter Bone to replace him in Wellingborough.

Bone was sacked by his constituents after a Westminster sleaze probe found him guilty of bullying and sexually harassing a member of his staff.

A by-election is now due to be held in the seat to replace him as the constituency’s MP.

Tory chairman Richard Holden announced on Sunday that the party had picked Helen Harrison, a Conservative councillor, as its candidate.

Bone, who was first elected in 2005, retained his seat in 2019 as the Tory MP with a majority of 18,540.

But the veteran backbencher was stripped of the Tory whip by the party following the report into his behaviour which saw him suspended from the Commons for six weeks in October.

That led a recall petition in his constituency which saw more than 13.2% of registered voters choose to dump him – higher than the 10% threshold needed to trigger a crunch by-election.

The by-election is another major headache for Rishi Sunak as Labour will be hopeful of pulling off a shock victory.

Westminster’s behaviour watchdog, the Independent Expert Panel, found that Bone had committed “many varied acts of bullying” and “sexual misconduct” against the staff member in 2012 and 2013.

“The bullying involved violence, shouting and swearing, mocking, belittling and humiliating behaviour, and ostracism,” the IEP said.

“This wilful pattern of bullying also included an unwanted incident of sexual misconduct, when the complainant was trapped in a room with the respondent in a hotel in Madrid.

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

Bone appealed the IEP’s initial decision, but it was dismissed.