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In the beginning of the following year, Rishi Sunak will be challenged with another by-election as MP Peter Bone was removed from parliament through a recall petition.
The Northamptonshire Member of Parliament was banned from the House of Commons for six weeks in October following an investigation that revealed he had engaged in bullying and sexual misconduct towards a member of his staff.
After being suspended, he participated in a recall petition in his Wellingborough constituency. Unfortunately, 10,505 people, which is 13.2% of eligible voters, supported the petition, surpassing the necessary 10% threshold to initiate a by-election. As a result, he has now lost his seat.
In the 2019 election, Peter Bone, Member of Parliament for Wellingborough, retained his position with a significant lead of over 18,000 votes.
The individual, who was 71 years old, had been serving as an independent after being removed from the Conservative Party. Prior to this, they had been a member of Parliament for Wellingborough since 2005.
In the 2019 election, Mr. Bone emerged as the winner with a margin of 18,540 votes, which was smaller compared to the previous majorities of the troubled Conservative party in Tamworth and Mid Bedfordshire. Interestingly, both of these areas were won by the Labour party in by-elections earlier this year.
The deputy prime minister, Oliver Dowden, acknowledged that the by-election in Peter Bone’s Wellingborough constituency would pose difficulties.
The parliament’s behavior watchdog determined that Mr. Bone engaged in “numerous and diverse instances of bullying and one instance of sexual misconduct” towards a staff member in the years 2012 and 2013.
The Independent Expert Panel confirmed a previous inquiry’s findings that he violated the MPs’ code of conduct by engaging in four instances of bullying and one instance of sexual misconduct. Mr Bone has refuted these accusations.
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Rishi Sunak has faced multiple setbacks in by-elections this year.
The board was informed that he engaged in “verbally degrading, mocking, mistreating and humiliating” behavior towards an employee and “frequently resorted to physical violence and throwing objects” at him.
The investigation discovered that Mr Bone had engaged in inappropriate behavior by exposing himself to the accuser in a hotel bathroom during a business trip to Madrid. He also subjected the man to a demeaning and undesired practice of making him sit with his hands on his lap whenever the MP was dissatisfied with his work.
The individual who filed the complaint at the heart of the case has informed the BBC that it was a terrible, violent, and traumatic event that has left them shattered and far from the young person they used to be.
The man claimed that the Conservative Party ignored him for three years after he initially reported the accusations. He stated that he had filed a complaint to then-prime minister Theresa May in 2017.
According to him, he felt disrespected when Mr. Bone was appointed deputy leader of the House of Commons by Boris Johnson, despite a Tory HQ investigation.
Mr. Bone came back to the House of Commons last week after his suspension ended, and voted in support of the government’s bill regarding Rwanda.
Tom Pursglove, the new immigration minister appointed by Mr Sunak, was seen campaigning in October with Mr Bone in Northamptonshire. This occurred just two days after Mr Bone’s suspension was officially approved by MPs, even though he had already lost the Tory whip.
On Tuesday evening, Mr. Bone expressed confusion over the decision to hold a by-election, stating that only 86.8 percent of eligible voters in his constituency did not support the recall petition.
Mr Bone stated that the bullying and misconduct accusations made against him are “completely false and unfounded.” He also mentioned that he will address these issues further in the upcoming year.
Anneliese Dodds, chair of the Labour Party, stated that citizens in Wellingborough have the chance to elect for a new beginning in the approaching by-election.
Source: independent.co.uk
