Boris Johnson has slammed a Tory MP who allegedly watched pornography in the commons chamber, saying it was “obviously unacceptable”.
Two female Tory MPs have said they saw a male colleague watching porn on his phone in the commons.
The prime minister said no-one should be behave like that in any workplace “up and down the country”.
Asked whether the MP will lose the Conservative whip if the allegations are proven, Johnson said: “I think it’s obviously unacceptable for anybody to be doing that kind of thing in the workplace.
“It would be the same for any kind of job up and down the country, let’s be absolutely clear about that.”
He made the comments on a visit to Burnley on Thursday and added: “What needs to happen now is that the proper procedures need to be gone through, the independent complaints and grievances procedure needs to be activated and we need to get to understand the facts, but, yeah, that kind of behaviour is clearly totally unacceptable.”
The Tory party’s chief whip Chris Heaton-Harris has called for the case to be referred to parliament’s Independent Complaints and Grievance Scheme (ICGS) which investigates allegations of harassment and sexual misconduct.
The disciplinary process could lead to a recommendation that the MP is suspended or forced out of the commons if a complaint is upheld.
It comes after separate claims that 56 MPs are currently facing sexual misconduct investigations, including three cabinet ministers and two shadow cabinet ministers.
Attorney General Suella Braverman said a minority of men in Parliament behaved like “animals”.
She told BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour that if a Tory MP was found to have been watching pornography in the commons chamber they should have the whip suspended and face the prospect of being ousted from parliament.
“I think that we would really need to see a situation where the whip should be removed – I’m ashamed this person is carrying a Conservative rosette,” she said, adding they could be subject to a recall process and “no longer holding their privileged position as a Member of Parliament”.