“Porn MP” Neil Parish was searching for “Dominator” farm vehicles when he accessed adult material in Parliament, his friends believe.
The former Tory MP resigned on Saturday after admitting watching pornography in the chamber, claiming that he had first stumbled across the content whilst searching for tractors
Colin Slade, a Devon county councillor, has now told The Telegraph that it was believed that Mr Parish was searching for Dominators – which are actually a brand of combine harvester.
Mr Slade said that he “could see” how the search could have led to inappropriate content as it is a “play on words”.
A Claas Dominator 76 combine harvester was spotted in the barn of Mr Parish’s family farm in north Somerset near Bridgwater as he gave an interview regarding his resignation this weekend.
Mr Parish claimed on Saturday that he had first been searching for “tractors” and got “into another website with sort of a very similar name and I watched it for a bit”.
The 65-year-old admitted that, after stumbling across the site accidentally, he went back and accessed it a second time as he was waiting to vote in the chamber, a decision he described as “deliberate” and “my biggest crime”.
“What I did was absolutely wrong. I was wrong. I was stupid. I lost sense of mind,” he added.
His actions have sparked a debate surrounding standards of behaviour in the Houses of Parliament.
Kwasi Kwarteng, the Business Secretary, insisted on Sunday that there was not a culture of misogyny but just a few “bad apples”.
The minister said that the House of Commons should not close all its bars in a “US prohibition-style lockdown” to prevent bad behaviour.
“I think this idea that we are going to go into some sort of US prohibition-style lockdown in the House of Commons where there are no bars, I think that is huge overreaction,” Mr Kwarteng told Times Radio:
“I think people generally behave responsibly. But sometimes one or two people don’t, just as in any other walk of life.”
The Claas Dominator is one of Europe’s most popular combine harvesters and was first manufactured in Germany in the 1970s. Mr Parish has been photographed standing on one of the vehicles.
A number of other farm machinery companies also market products such as mowers and tillers used in harvest which use the brand name “Dominator”.
Mr Slade said that the search terms had not been confirmed to him by Mr Parish personally.
‘Very sad to see him go’
“Neil has always been very supportive of our constituents, of our local association, of local charities and of me and my family, we know him socially as well as professionally,” Mr Slade said.
“I have never had any concerns about his behaviour and I regard Neil as totally truthful. I saw his BBC interview, which was very heartfelt, in which he said he was wrong and he was sorry. I had a conversation with him in which he said very similar things.”
The select committee chairman was first suspended by the Conservative Party on Friday because two female colleagues reported seeing him looking at the explicit content on his mobile phone in the Commons chamber and at a select committee hearing.
His resignation the following day sparks a by-election in the Tory safe seat of Tiverton and Honiton.
Mr Slade added: “It was a very stupid thing to do and he has now done what he regards as the honourable thing to do and the local association support his decision.
“We are very sad to see him go, he has been an excellent constituency MP for many years and we will have a difficult job to replace him.”
Mr Slade said that he believed that Mr Parish would miss most his role chairing the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee as it was a cause close to his heart as a farmer.
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( Information from telegraph.co.uk was used in this report. To Read More, click here )
