Will porngate Parish return to parliament?

There’s a spectre haunting Westminster: the spectre of Neil Parish. The former Tiverton MP spent twelve years in parliament in happy backbench obscurity. Until, that is, he became the new poster boy of Tory sleaze last April when he admitted watching pornography twice in the Palace of Westminster.

Parish first tried to brazen it out, telling GB News that the MP ‘should be dealt with and dealt with seriously’ before his identity was known. He then suggested he was merely trying to look at pictures of tractors online. After that failed, Parish resigned as an MP, turning Tiverton’s 24,000 Conservative majority into a Lib Dem majority of 6,000 on a 38-point swing. It was one of two by-election defeats for Boris Johnson that ultimately led to the Prime Minister’s downfall.

Now Parish – a one man walking cure for imposter syndrome – has decided that he has more to give to public life.