Rishi Sunak faces recent by-election nightmare after Peter Bone ousted as MP | Politics | News | EUROtoday

Rishi Sunak is going through one other doubtlessly bruising by-election after voters backed a petition to take away disgraced Tory MP Peter Bone.

Some 13.2 per cent -of the voters in Wellingborough voted for the recall petition, triggering a by-election.

The Wellingborough MP was suspended from the Commons for six weeks in October after an inquiry discovered he had subjected a workers member to bullying and sexual misconduct.

He had been sitting as an impartial after dropping the Conservative whip.

But Mr Bone will now not be an MP – although he will probably be allowed to face within the by-election.

The former Tory MP reacted with fury tonight, declaring on social media: “68,897 people chose not to sign the petition which represents 86.8 per cent of the electorate.

“As the quantity of people that signing the petition exceeds 10 per cent, there will probably be a Parliamentary by-election early subsequent yr.

“This seems bizarre as as 86.8 per cent of the electorate did not want to remove me from office, nor for there to be a by-election, and yet we are still to have one.

“I wish to thank all these individuals who have contacted me throughout the political spectrum. It has been most type of so many individuals to have taken the time to contact me.

“The recall petition came about as a result of an inquiry into alleged bullying and misconduct towards an ex-employee which was alleged to have occurred more than 10 years ago.

“These allegations are completely unfaithful and with out basis.

“I will have more to say on these matters in the new year.”

Mr Bone was discovered to have “committed many varied acts of bullying and one act of sexual misconduct” in opposition to a workers member in 2012 and 2013.

Parliament’s behaviour watchdog, the Independent Expert Panel, upheld an earlier investigation that discovered he broke the MPs’ code of conduct on 4 counts of bullying and one in every of sexual misconduct.

The panel discovered that he had indecently uncovered himself to the complainant within the lavatory of a resort room throughout a piece journey to Madrid.

Mr Bone has denied the allegations.

The former minister was kicked out of the Tory parliamentary celebration a day after the report was revealed on October 16.

Mr Sunak, the Conservative Party chief, will face one other stern check early in 2024.

Wellingborough has been held by the Tories since 2005 after Mr Bone took it from Labour.

During Boris Johnson’s landslide victory in 2019, the Tories held it with a powerful 18,540 majority.

But with the Tories properly behind Labour within the polls and bigger blue majorities having been overturned in current by-elections, Mr Sunak’s celebration is predicted to have a battle on its palms to carry onto the constituency when voters go to the polls.