A female minister caught a Tory MP watching porn on his phone as he sat alongside her in the House of Commons, the Mirror can reveal.
The minister told colleagues about the incident, which happened in recent weeks, at a meeting of Tory MPs.
Tory chief whip Chris Heaton-Harris began investigating before handing the issue over to Parliament's post-Pestminster watchdog, the Independent Complaints and Grievance Scheme.
That means the MP will face an independent process - but won't be named by Parliamentary authorities for months or more.
Last night, minister for safeguarding women Rachel Maclean, said if the claims were true the man should be expelled. She told Sky News: "Action needs to be taken and I very much hope ... we will see him out of Parliament, out of the party. I hope that's where we get to.
At the highly charged meeting of female Tory MPs described by one witness as a “blood-letting”, around a dozen women shared stories of being subjected to sexism and harassment in Westminster.
But MPs said there were “audible gasps” in the room when a minister revealed that she had spotted a Tory MP sitting next to her in the Commons watching porn on his phone.
Two people present said she had described him as a “frontbencher”, a minister or a whip, but a third said she had only said a Tory “MP”.
The Commons meeting of between 40 and 50 female Tory MPs, known as the 2022 group, was attended by chief whip Chris Heaton-Harris, who is investigating the claims, the unnamed culprit expected to lose his job.
At Prime Minister’s Questions, Boris Johnson told MPs: “Sexual harassment is intolerable... of course it is grounds for dismissal.”
The latest Tory sexism storm comes after reports that 56 MPs, including three Cabinet ministers, face allegations of sexual misconduct after being reported to Parliament’s Independent Complaints and Grievance scheme.
It also follows the row over a newspaper article in which Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner was accused of using her legs in a “Basic Instinct” ploy to distract Mr Johnson at PMQs.
Several women at the 2022 meeting today raised concerns that the toxic atmosphere within the Tory party could put off women from standing for Parliament.
Sources said former Prime Minister Theresa May, who was present for some of the MPs’ testimony but not the porn allegation, looked on “with a face like thunder”. One MP told the Mirror: “It was like a blood-letting. Everybody was sharing awful stories of what had happened to them in the Commons at the hands of male MPs.
“[The chief whip] clearly hadn’t been expecting it and looked knocked for six. But the big question is, what happens next?”
Another said: “It was extraordinary. They were genuinely shocked. They must realise there are serious issues they need to address”.
Pauline Latham, Conservative MP for Mid Derbyshire, said: “It’s shocking.
“If they’re guilty of genuinely looking at porn on the front bench when they’re supposed to be working, they need sacking”.
Harriet Harman, a Labour MP and vice-chair of the cross-party Women in Parliament group, said: “The standards committee is reviewing the MP code of conduct.
“It shouldn’t be necessary to say, ‘You’re not to watch porn on phones in the House of Commons’ – phones which are probably paid for by the taxpayer – but it might be that it has to be added.”
Tory MP for Bassetlaw Brendan Clarke-Smith initially played down the allegations, claiming: “I can’t even get a WiFi signal in the Chamber”.
He swiftly added: "I think it’s unacceptable in any workplace really... If someone has done that then quite rightly I would expect there to be some consequences for that”.
Multiple witnesses at the 2022 meeting, attended by Tory party chairman Oliver Dowden and Commons leader Mark Spencer, told the Mirror how MPs had shared their accounts of sexism.
One told how a female colleague in a knee-length, leather skirt had been told by a male MP: “That’s a nice outfit. What do you do for your day job?”
Another said in recent weeks a Tory whip had ushered women MPs into the voting lobbies, telling them: “Come on, girls.”
At PMQs, Labour leader Keir Starmer said: “I hope the PM has sent a clear message (to his MPs) that there’s no place for sexism and misogyny.”
Damian Green was sacked as Mrs May’s deputy PM in 2017 after lying about the presence of porn on his House of Commons computer.
