As a Conservative MP arrested on suspicion of rape is released on bail, we take a look at sexual misconduct allegations made against MPs and their outcomes.
Imran Ahmad Khan
The Conservative MP for Wakefield, Imran Ahmad Khan, was found guilty in April of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy after plying him with gin at a party in 2008.
Khan assaulted the boy in Staffordshire in January 2008, 11 years before he became an MP. He resigned as an MP two weeks after he was found guilty.
Neil Parish
The Conservative MP for Tiverton and Honiton in April admitted to watching porn on his phone in the House of Commons.
Parish initially suggested he had opened the porn “in error” but subsequently admitted that while the first time he had watched porn in parliament was an accident, and he was in fact searching for tractors, the second occasion was deliberate. He announced his decision to resign as an MP.
David Warburton
The Conservative party removed the whip from the MP for Somerton and Frome, who, the Sunday Times reported, is facing allegations from three women.
Warburton, 56, was accused by one of the women of climbing into bed with her naked. She told the Sunday Times she repeatedly warned that she did not want to have sex with him, but alleged that he ground his body against her and groped her breasts.
He is said to have denied any wrongdoing, and insisted he had “enormous amounts of defence, but unfortunately the way things work means that doesn’t come out first”.
Rob Roberts
The Conservative MP for Delyn was allowed to rejoin the party despite an independent investigation finding that he sexually harassed a junior member of staff.
Roberts was suspended for 12 weeks after the independent panel found he had made “significant” repeated and unwanted sexual advances towards a former member of staff and used “his position as his employer to place him under pressure to accede”.
He had his membership to the party restored but continued to sit as an independent MP in parliament.
Andrew Griffiths
In December 2021, in family proceedings a high court judge concluded that the former Conservative minister raped his wife when she was asleep and subjected her to coercive control.
The judgment detailed alleged domestic abuse by Griffiths towards his wife, Kate, who is a serving Conservative MP, during their marriage.
It also included pressing her into sex, physically assaulting and verbally abusing her, the judge found. Andrew Griffiths denied allegations and “adamantly denied” rape.
He resigned from government as business minister in July 2018 after sending 2,000 sexually explicit messages to constituents. In November 2019 he stepped down as an MP.
Charlie Elphicke
The MP for Dover was convicted and jailed in 2020 for sexually assaulting two women. He was found guilty of three charges, two in relation to a parliamentary worker in 2016 and one in relation to a woman at his family’s central London home in 2007. The sentencing judge described Elphicke as “a sexual predator who used … success and respectability as a cover”.
During the trial, jurors heard that his first victim had suffered a “terrifying episode” when he assaulted her, then chased her round his home chanting “I’m a naughty Tory”.
Mike Hill
In July 2021, an employment tribunal ruled that the Labour MP for Hartlepool repeatedly sexually assaulted and harassed a parliamentary staff member before victimising her when she refused his advances.
A central London employment tribunal found he marginalised her in parliament, changed her terms and conditions of employment and made her redundant when the staff member, known as Ms A, rejected his advances and declarations of love.
Hill had resigned as a Labour MP in March 2021, resulting in a May byelection in Hartlepool and a victory for the Conservatives.
John Woodcock
In April 2018, the Labour MP for Barrow and Furness was suspended from the Labour party amid an investigation into claims he sent inappropriate text messages to a female former aide.
Later that year, he quit the Labour party, saying in a resignation letter that the disciplinary case was politically motivated and rigged against him. He vehemently denied the allegations. His resignation meant the investigation was not concluded.
He continued to serve as an independent and later joined the House of Lords as a crossbench life peer.
Michael Fallon
Conservative Michael Fallon resigned as defence secretary in 2017, admitting that his behaviour towards women in the past had “fallen short”.
Fallon apologised for making unwanted advances to the journalist Julia Hartley-Brewer, repeatedly placing his hand on her knee – although Hartley-Brewer herself insisted: “No one was remotely upset or distressed.”
However, after his resignation, additional allegations were made against him. In September 2019, he announced he would not seek re-election at the 2019 general election.
Stephen Crabb
The Conservative MP for Preseli Pembrokeshire was referred to the party’s complaints procedure in 2017 after admitting he sent “sexual chatter” to a 19-year-old woman who hoped to work for him.
He resigned as pensions secretary in 2016 after allegations that he had sent suggestive messages on WhatsApp to a woman in her 20s, whom he had met through his political role. Crabb apologised for the messages and a Conservative party investigating panel determined that his behaviour had been inappropriate, but did not constitute harassment. He remains an MP.
Mark Garnier
The junior trade minister Mark Garnier was formally cleared of wrongdoing in 2017 for asking his former assistant to buy a sex toy and calling her “sugar tits”.
Garnier did not deny the accusations about the events in 2010 made by his former assistant Caroline Edmondson, which prompted a one-month investigation by the Cabinet Office to see if he had breached the ministerial code.
Damian Green
Damian Green was sacked as first secretary of state in 2017 after admitting he lied about the presence of pornographic images on his House of Commons computer.
In his resignation letter, the Conservative MP for Ashford continued to maintain he did not “download or view” the pornography, but added that he “should have been clear in my press statements”.
A Cabinet Office inquiry was unable to reach a definitive conclusion on separate allegations, made by the Tory activist Kate Maltby, that Green had behaved improperly towards her.
Green continued to maintain he did not believe he did anything inappropriate.
Kelvin Hopkins
The Labour MP for Luton North left the party in January 2021 before an inquiry into sexual harassment allegations against him was concluded, meaning no findings were drawn.
Hopkins was accused in 2017 of inappropriate physical contact and was suspended by the Labour party pending an investigation.
He continued to sit as an independent until the general election last year, when he opted to stand down from the House of Commons after a 22-year career. The prominent Eurosceptic cited his wife’s health as the reason for standing down and has denied the allegations against him.
Clive Lewis
In 2017, Clive Lewis, the Labour MP for Norwich South and former shadow business secretary, was cleared of allegations of sexual harassment after a party investigation.
Lewis, the MP for Norwich South, was accused of grabbing a female Labour member’s bottom at a fringe event at the party’s conference in September.
