Tory MP Ross Thomson to quit when denying statutory offense claim
Aberdeen South MP has been suspect of incertain Labour MP in Commons bar
Ross Thomson
Ross Thomson aforementioned he would still fight to clear his name. Photograph: Ken Jack/Corbis via Getty pictures
Ross Thomson, a Scottish Tory MP facing allegations he sexually ill-treated a fellow MP, has unexpectedly proclaimed he's quitting City of Westminster.
Thomson aforementioned during a statement on Twitter that he was standing down hours when denying allegations by Paul Sweeney, the Labour MP for Glasgow North East, that he had groped him during a Commons bar before of witnesses.
Ross Thomson MP
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@RossThomson_MP
Please see below a press release that I even have discharged to the media this afternoon 👇🏻
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6:38 AM - Nov three, 2019
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Sweeney disclosed he had rumored Thomson to the House of Commons authorities earlier this year and alleged the Tory MP had drunkenly intruded on a spoken language he was having with friends within the Strangers’ bar in October.
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He alleged in AN interview with the Mail on Sunday that Thomson had fondled him and tried to place his handily his trousers, and urged him to square down because the Tory candidate for Aberdeen South.
“I felt paralysed. it absolutely was simply such a surprising issue. i used to be during a physiological condition. it absolutely was mortifiying,” Sweeney aforementioned. “Nobody knew wherever to seem at the table. It’s embarrassing. [I] couldn’t fight, therefore I took flight.”
Sweeney aforementioned he had rumored the incident to the Commons authorities when reading allegations in February that Thomson had been suspect of the “sexual touching” of different men in Strangers’ bar.
The police were referred to as following that incident however no formal allegations were created against Thomson, therefore no action was taken. Thomson denied he had ill-treated anybody and referred himself to the Conservative party’s disciplinary panel.
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Thomson, a former Tory MSP and member, aforementioned the “anonymous and malicious” allegations of assault by Sweeney and a minimum of one different man had “made my life a living hell. it's been nothing wanting traumatic.”
Describing Sweeney’s allegations within the Scottish edition of the Mail on Sunday as “false and defamatory”, Thomson added: “This could be a political smear and that i can still fight to clear my name. i'll see this fact-finding method through to a conclusion.
“[This] has been doubtless the toughest call of my life. I stay assured that the continuing parliamentary standards method can notice in my favour, which these unsupported claims are shown up for what they're.”
Thomson’s resignation are a major blow to the Scottish Tories and to Boris Johnson therefore presently before the overall election; nominations shut on Thursday fourteen November, giving the Tories ten days to search out a replacement candidate. Thomson took Aberdeen South from the SNP within the 2017 snap election with a convincing four,752-vote majority.
Thomson was among the foremost avid supporters of Brexit among the thirteen Tories WHO won Scottish seats within the 2017 election, and helped run Johnson’s Tory leadership campaign in European nation.
It remains unclear whether or not the parliamentary standards commission is probably going to continue with AN investigation currently AN election has been referred to as, given Thomson has currently resigned and – assumptive no results square measure revealed before City of Westminster is dissolved – the alleged incidents materialized during a previous parliament.
Sweeney told the Mail on Sunday he had ab initio unbroken quiet regarding the alleged incident as a result of he didn't need to be labeled because the MP WHO was sexually ill-treated.
After the primary allegations emerged in February, Sweeney aforementioned he felt he had a “moral duty” to file a grievance with the parliamentary standards commission. He had gone public, he added, as a result of he felt annoyed that the commission had however to issue a ruling, with parliament near to be dissolved for the election.
Earlier on Sunday Thomson had implicit he supposed to fight the election, inculpatory Sweeney of a politically motivated smear. “It assume it's telling that adult male Sweeney has chosen this moment, simply days out from the start of a election campaign, to abandon the confidential investigation method and take his smear campaign to the Mail on Sunday,” he tweeted.
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