‘Tractor porn’ MP reveals police seized his shotguns: Shamed ex-Tory reveals officers ‘kindly’ confiscated weapons over fears he would shoot himself in wake of scandal
- Neil Parish has revealed police seized his shotguns to stop him shooting himself
- Shamed ex-Tory MP has admitted to watching porn in the House of Commons
- Married father-of-two, 56, said the Tory party left him to ‘drown’ amid scandal
- For support call the Samaritans on 116 123 or go to www.samaritans.org
A shamed ex-Conservative MP who admitted to watching pornography in the House of Commons has today revealed that police confiscated his shotguns to prevent him from shooting himself.
In a candid interview on LBC’s Swarbrick On Sunday, married father-of-two Neil Parish opened up about his struggles in the aftermath of the scandal.
Claiming that Tory chief whip Chris-Heaton Harris left him to ‘drown’ instead of offering him help, the 56-year-old said he ‘frightened’ as he received an avalanche of abuse and death threats.
Mr Parish, a farmer by trade who said he first stumbled on the adult content after looking at tractors online then deliberately watched it a second time in the Commons in a ‘moment of madness’, said: ‘The police very kindly and rightly took away – because I am a farmer, you see – I have got shotguns, so they took those away from me.
‘Because when you have blown up your parliamentary career for 12 years, you are not feeling in the best place, and they took them away for my own safety, not that I was going to shoot anybody else, in case I shot myself.
‘I did say to them in a moment of black humour, ‘I am a very bad shot, I will probably miss’, but they didn’t, naturally, see the joke at the time, or nor was it very funny.’
Ex-Tory MP Neil Parish is pictured riding a tractor. He quit as a Conservative after admitting to watching porn in the House of Commons in a ‘moment of madness’
Mr Parish pictured addressing the House of Commons
In a candid interview on LBC’s Swarbrick On Sunday, married father-of-two Neil Parish opened up about his struggles in the aftermath of the porn scandal
During the interview, Mr Parish said a few times that what he did was ‘immoral’ but ‘not illegal’.
He went on: ‘I was right in the corner of the House of Commons as you go into the lobby to vote, so this idea I think people have got that I was right in the middle of the House of Commons flaunting it is absolutely wrong.
‘I wasn’t proud of what I was doing and it was very wrong. But I didn’t spend any time in the last 12 years, shall I say, splitting on fellow members.
‘I asked to be able to apologise if I caused offence, I was not given that opportunity by the chief whip, and I was thrown to the press wolves.’
Mr Parish added: ‘I have had a couple of death threats and you have got all these cameras outside your house. And David Amess … you know, I had an office three doors down from him.
‘I was not going to put my wife through this. I spent the whole three days trying to make sure they didn’t have the house in full view of the cameras. I think I largely managed to succeed in that.
‘It’s not easy. And when you go to the chief whip and ask for help, you expect it. You are thrown over the side of a ship, and then you are left to drown. That’s how it works and fine, but I saw Mark Spencer on the podcast, Telegraph podcast, saying how caring they all were. I need to put it out on record, they are not.’
Mr Parish, pictured with his wife of 40 years Susan, at the Constituency Garden of Remembrance outside the Palace of Westminster
On the by-election result in Tiverton and Honiton, which was snatched by the Liberal Democrats, overturning a Conservative majority of more than 24,000, Mr Parish said Boris Johnson must take some responsibility for it.
He said: ‘I think he (the Prime Minister) is playing a very dangerous game now, he really is. He has to face up to the reality, that, yes, I caused the by-election, but I didn’t lose the by-election.
‘It’s a safe seat. It would have been a reduced majority under normal times, and we would have returned Helen Hurford quite comfortably, but the trouble was, naturally, it was a referendum on the Prime Minister, and he must take some responsibility.’
The married father-of-two had previously vowed to continue as the MP for Tiverton and Honiton, but finally bowed to pressure to resign.
He said in an interview with BBC South West that he recognised the ‘furore’ and ‘damage’ he was causing his family and his constituency in Devon before deciding ‘it just wasn’t worth carrying on’.
‘The situation was, funnily enough it was tractors I was looking at, so I did get into another website with sort of a very similar name and I watched it for a bit, which I shouldn’t have done,’ Mr Parish said.
Mr Parish confirmed he was resigning in an interview with BBC South West
‘My crime, my most biggest crime, is that on another occasion I went in a second time, and that was deliberate.
‘I was wrong what I was doing, but this idea that I was there watching it, intimidating women, I mean I have 12 years in Parliament and probably got one of the best reputations ever – or did have.’
When pressed on why he chose to view the material in the Commons, he said: ‘I don’t know, I think I must’ve taken complete leave of my senses and my sensibilities and my sense of decency, everything.’
‘I thought that I could explain to the standards committee what happened and it would be worth explaining what happened which I will in a minute.’
He added: ‘What I do want to put on record is that for all my rights and wrongs, I was not proud of what I was doing. The one thing I wasn’t doing and which I will take to my grave as being true is I was not actually making sure people could see it.
‘In fact, I was trying to do quite the opposite. I was wrong what I was doing, but this idea that I was there watching it and intimidating women.’
He continued: ‘Total madness. I’m not going to defend it. I’m also not going to defend what I did. What I did was absolutely, totally wrong. In the end, what do you do?’
For support call the Samaritans on 116 123 or go to www.samaritans.org
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