Conservative MP Michael Fabricant has published a deeply unusual video on YouTube which shows him spanking another man in his office.
In the video, the MP, who has held the seat of Lichfield in Staffordshire since 1997, raises an object in one hand as a man in a suit leans over a desk, the Birmingham Mail reports. He then uses the object to “whack the man on the bottom,” says the paper.
The light-hearted video is intended to teach the public about whips, the MPs in charge of maintaining discipline in political parties and encouraging other MPs to back their leader.
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Fabricant chose to illustrate the role of whips by spanking a man referred to through the rest of the clip as “Tarquin”. The man is played by comedian Mark Dolan.
After the spanking, Fabricant turns to the camera and says: “That’s not allowed any more.”
The Daily Mirror reports that the video is the first in a series on “how the frequently arcane and impenetrable rules of the Houses of Parliament work”.
The video has certainly got people talking, so what else has Michael Fabricant done?
He’s been thrown out of the Soviet Union at gunpoint
In an interview for the Daily Mail, Fabricant claimed he was “expelled at gunpoint for naughty activities” in 1989.
“I was trying to get people to defect. The head of studio planning at a radio station in Moscow, where we were installing a desk, was in the KGB,” he said.
“I got him over to Britain, but then he changed his mind. He didn’t want to betray his country.
“Anyway, I can’t go into too much detail or I’ll be shot.”
He’s appeared on reality TV
Fabricant appeared on the Stand Up To Cancer special edition of reality show First Dates on Channel 4 in November last year.
Birmingham Live writes that Fabricant has “first-hand experience of the disease, having been treated for both prostate cancer and skin cancer in recent years”.
Shortly before it aired, he tweeted a trailer, adding “I’m on First Dates this week making a tit of myself. Watch the trailer!”
The news that a standing MP was appearing on the dating show caused enough of a stir for Prime Minister Theresa May to joke about it during a debate in the House of Commons.
He’s been outspoken about lots of things
Although the MP’s playful approach to politics has won him a number of fans, his exploits have also been controversial.
Earlier this year Fabricant was accused of Islamophobia after tweeting a picture of Muslim London Mayor Sadiq Khan as a pig, Russia Today reports. In May he attracted criticism after calling a teenage critic of his “a complete t**t” on Twitter – a tweet he has yet to delete.
