The decision by Tory ex-minister Brooks Newmark to resign from Parliament after being caught “sexting” obscene pictures of himself to a second woman has increased the pressure on David Cameron and Nick Clegg to give voters the right to dump “deadbeat” MPs.
Newmark announced yesterday that he will step down from his Braintree, Essex seat, after being exposed for sexting naked “selfies” to a single mother he met online.
The latest revelation follows last month’s news that he was leaving his post as minister for civil society after being caught in a Sunday Mirror sting sending similar selfies to a male journalist posing as a young woman.
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Newmark, who ironically was in charge of David Cameron’s drive to get more women into politics, said he was “battling inner demons” and was seeking psychiatric help. His wife has apparently left the family house over the scandal.
But Newmark does not intend to quit until the general election next May.
While there is some sympathy for the man because of his mental state, MPs are furious with him for bringing Parliament into further disrepute - and giving Ukip another potential boost as the anti-establishment party.
Which is why Ukip’s first MP, Douglas Carswell, who takes his seat in the Commons today, is at the front of the queue to pressurise the government to toughen a bill giving constituents the power to demand the recall of MPs.
The Recall of MPs Bill, introduced in June by David Cameron and Nick Clegg, was intended to clean up the Westminster stable in the wake of the expenses scandal.
The PM and his deputy were hoping the bill would help to restore public faith in MPs by offering the right to a by-election if ten per cent of constituents signed a petition calling for the sacking of an MP who had been sentenced to jail or been engaged in “serious wrongdoing”.
However, Zac Goldsmith, the Tory MP who had led the campaign for the legislation, attacked the bill as “meaningless” when it was unveiled - because it gave the final say over whether MPs should be recalled not to the culprit’s constituents but to a committee of MPs.
Tomorrow, Nick Clegg will be introducing the Second Reading of the Bill, which still hands the final sanction to a committee of MPs. He will immediately face calls from Carswell – and others – for amendments to strengthen the bill and preferably give that final decision to constituents.
Carswell told the Andrew Marr Show yesterday: “I believe in recall so strongly, I recalled myself. I think there is a good chance we can get that onto the Statute Book. I want to build a coalition across the House to allow that to happen.
“If your MP is a deadbeat, in politics for themselves, local people should be able to do what they just did in Clacton and are about to do in Rochester, bringing them back and holding their feet to the fire.”
