British police said on Wednesday they had released on bail a lawmaker from the ruling Conservative party the day after he was arrested on suspicion of multiple sexual offences, including rape. London’s Metropolitan police, who did not name the MP, said officers detained a man in his 50s following allegations of indecent assault, sexual assault, rape and other misconduct offences more than a decade ago. “In January 2020, the Met received a report relating to alleged sexual offences having been committed between 2002 and 2009,” the force said, adding they were alleged to have occurred in the British capital. “He was taken into custody and has since been bailed pending further enquiries to a date in mid-June,” it added. A spokeswoman for the Conservatives’ office dealing with party discipline said the MP concerned had been instructed not to attend parliament or its various adjoining buildings while the probe continued. The Conservatives will not decide whether to suspend the suspect from the parliamentary party until after the police probe has concluded, reports said. UK PM Johnson admits to ‘tough night’ with heavy losses in local elections The arrest is the latest in a series of scandal involving a British lawmaker, with Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Tories in particular embroiled in numerous controversies, several of a sexual nature. Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said that she was “very, very concerned” about the allegations. “It is worrying that we are seeing these appalling accusations again, about a parliamentarian,” she told Sky News on Wednesday, adding that it was up to police to decide whether to name him. Last month, it was revealed at least 56 MPs, including three ministers, are currently being probed over allegations of sexual misconduct by parliament’s own complaints office. Conservative lawmaker Neil Parish resigned last month after admitting he had deliberately watched pornography on his mobile phone in the House of Commons chamber. Another Tory MP, Imran Ahmad Khan, also quit parliament in April following his conviction for sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy . All of that is damaging the Conservatives’ reputation as the party of law and order. Johnson himself became the first prime minister found to have broken the law while in office when London’s Metropolitan police fined him last month for breaching the lockdown regulations his own government set during the Covid-19 pandemic. Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak and Johnson’s wife, Carrie, have also been fined as part of the police probe into a dozen gatherings in government buildings in 2020 and 2021. So far police have issued more than 100 fines, and have yet to conclude their investigation. The scandal, dubbed “partygate” by the British press, put Johnson’s premiership on the brink earlier in the year as would-be Tory rebels weighed an attempt to oust him. Additional reporting by Bloomberg
