A few were prepared to give Neil Parish the benefit of the doubt pending the result of an inquiry. But most people in the Devon market town of Tiverton on Saturday had very little sympathy for their MP.
“He should just admit what he’s done and get out,” said Hannah Tucker, 32, a supermarket worker who was shopping with her husband, Liam. “The Tories are a joke. They get up to all sorts – and most of the time get away with it. They’ve to be stopped.”