A Tory by-election candidate has stated she is “proud” to have her associate and disgraced ex-MP Peter Bone as a part of her marketing campaign to exchange him the Commons.
Helen Harrison additionally stated she believed the allegations in opposition to her lover, which included exposing his genitals to a former assistant, are “untrue”. It comes a fortnight after the Tories provoked outrage by deciding on Ms Harrison to run to exchange Mr Bone within the Commons on the Wellingborough by-election.
Mr Bone’s constituents voted to kick him out of the seat final month after an inquiry discovered he had subjected a employees member to bullying and sexual misconduct. Parliament’s Independent Expert Panel (IEP) dominated he had engaged in “a wilful pattern of bullying” which included “an unwanted incident of sexual misconduct, when the complainant was trapped in a room with the respondent in a hotel in Madrid”.
In her first comments since being picked to run for the Tories at the by-election on February 15, Ms Ms Harrison claimed the IEP had “acquired it fallacious”. The councillor advised the BBC : “As Peter’s associate and his supporting particular person by way of that course of, I’m certainly one of a small quantity of people that had seen each single little bit of proof that has been offered in that case.”
Mr Bone, who misplaced the Tory whip after the IEP issued its findings, has been seen on the streets of Wellingborough campaigning to get his associate within the Commons.
But Ms Harrison stated she was “proud” to have Mr Bone “as part of my campaign” and claimed folks have been “not raising” Mr Bone’s behaviour wither her. “They’re talking to me about the small boats; they’re talking about potholes; they’re talking about their health services [and] getting more police on the beat – those issues that people are going to be voting on in this by-election,” she added.
Mr Bone’s constituents voted to kick him out of the seat final month after an inquiry discovered he had subjected a employees member to bullying and sexual misconduct. It was reported in November that Mr Bone was threatening to run as an unbiased in a possible Wellingborough by-election, until his girlfriend was added to the shortlist of candidates.
It sparked fears amongst Tories that Mr Bone, who had a big majority of 18,540 within the 2019 election, might probably break up the Conservative vote and hand victory to Labour. At the time of Ms Harrison’s choice, Labour’s Shadow Paymaster General Jonathan Ashworth stated: “ Rishi Sunak caving to Peter Bone’s demand to select his partner so he doesn’t run as an independent shows just how weak the Prime Minister is. Rishi Sunak is too weak to lead his own party, let alone the country.
“The people of Wellingborough deserve the best possible candidate to represent them, not the product of a quick political fix. Only Labour can deliver the change the voters want to see and give Britain its future back.”
Mr Bone has beforehand stated the findings by the IEP have been “untrue”. He stated on the time of his Commons suspension: “As I’ve maintained all through these proceedings, not one of the misconduct allegations in opposition to me ever occurred. They are false and unfaithful claims. They are with out basis.”