Rees-Mogg: It would be honourable for disgraced MP Roberts to stand down

Delyn MP Rob Roberts faces being suspended from the Commons for six weeks after breaching sexual misconduct rules.
MP facing suspension for sexual misconduct
MP facing suspension for sexual misconduct
PA

Commons Leader Jacob Rees-Mogg has suggested it would be “honourable” for disgraced MP Rob Roberts to stand down after he breached sexual misconduct rules.

Rees-Mogg made the remark as he confirmed the Government is looking at dealing with a loophole which prevents constituents of Mr Roberts (Delyn) from forcing a by-election.

MPs later approved a motion to suspend Mr Roberts from the Commons for six weeks after he made repeated unwanted advances to a parliamentary member of staff. He has also lost the Tory whip.

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he believed Mr Roberts had received “condign” – which means appropriate – punishment.

There are workable solutions to what would be a stain on us all if the public sees someone who has carried out sexual misconduct keep their job in this place

Thangam Debonnaire

The way recall laws are drawn up means Mr Roberts cannot face the prospect of losing his seat.

The sanction was proposed by the panel set up in 2020 to deal with cases raised under the Independent Complaints and Grievance Scheme.

But only the Recall of Parliament Act, passed in 2015, allows the prospect of a by-election for sanctions imposed on the recommendation of the Commons Committee on Standards.

Mr Rees-Mogg told MPs: “Following a case of this severity in which it would be honourable for a member to stand down after the withdrawal of the whip, we need to look at whether the process is striking the right balance between the defendants, protecting the confidentiality of the complainants and in ensuring consistent outcomes across different types of conduct case.

“I can therefore confirm to the House that I have asked the chairman of the independent expert panel for his views on whether changes should be made to the current process to enable recall to be triggered.

“In my view, any changes in this regard should be made in the most straightforward way possible and my preference would therefore be for a non-legislative solution.”

Mr Rees-Mogg said it is ultimately for the House of Commons to make a decision.

For Labour, shadow Commons leader Thangam Debbonaire said she had written to Mr Rees-Mogg to offer to work with him to “close the loophole urgently and seek solutions”.

She said: “I’d like to work with him to go further and quicker and I agree that there are non-legislative solutions because in what other job could someone who has carried out sexual misconduct not face losing that job?”

She added: “There are workable solutions to what would be a stain on us all if the public sees someone who has carried out sexual misconduct keep their job in this place.”

Ms Debbonaire said that “ideally the member would do the honourable thing and resign forthwith”, adding: “Process should not be a shield for unacceptable behaviour, if the member does not resign, he should be subject to recall and if he is not, we run the risk of appearing as if this House does not take sexual misconduct seriously which of course we do.”

Mr Rees-Mogg, in his reply, said: “It is frankly ridiculous that we have a higher sanction for somebody who uses a few envelopes incorrectly than for somebody who is involved in sexual misconduct.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in