'My crime, my most biggest crime, is that on another occasion I went in a second time, and that was deliberate. 'The situation was, funnily enough it was tractors I was looking at, so I did get into another website with sort of a very similar name and I watched it for a bit, which I shouldn't have done,' Mr Parish said. He said in an interview with BBC South West that he recognised the 'furore' and 'damage' he was causing his family and his constituency in Devon before deciding 'it just wasn't worth carrying on'.
The married father-of-two had previously vowed to continue as the MP for Tiverton and Honiton, but finally bowed to pressure to resign. Mr Parish struggled to hold back tears at the weekend as he told how in a 'moment of madness' he first stumbled on the adult content, then deliberately watched it a second time while he was sitting waiting to vote at the side of the Commons chamber. The unpaid roles have no responsibilities and the Manor of Northstead, a former medieval estate in North Yorkshire, has been redeveloped and forms part of Scarborough. The archaic title is necessary because technically MPs cannot resign - they only cease to be members of the House if they die, are expelled, or become disqualified.ĭisqualification is achieved by taking one of two offices of profit under the Crown – Crown Steward and Bailiff of the Chiltern Hundreds, or Crown Steward and Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead. Mr Parish, a farmer by trade, said he intended to resign as Tiverton and Honiton MP over the weekend after revealing he first accidentally viewed the X-rated video after looking at tractors online.Ī statement from the Treasury this afternoon said: 'The Chancellor of the Exchequer has this day appointed Neil Quentin Gordon Parish to be Steward and Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead.' The Treasury announced the 65-year-old has been appointed 'Steward and Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead' - the conventional way for someone to resign from Parliament. "There have been other problems with security the defence information of our private contractors," he pointed out.Ĭrossbench Senator Cory Bernardi also said the hack could have compromised national security.Īs Defence Industry Minister, Mr Pyne usually uses his Twitter account to discuss military hardware or sometimes to promote his media appearances.Neil Parish today formally quit as a Tory MP after admitting watching porn in the House of Commons in a 'moment of madness'.
"I think it is most serious when any minister, but especially a defence minister is the victim of hacking and I do think we need to get to the bottom of this," Mr Shorten said. Labor leader Bill Shorten said he was worried about the breach of Mr Pyne's account. He has since removed the "like" on the pornographic image. The activity on his Twitter account was pointed out on the social media site by other users, including Australians living overseas. "I was hacked overnight!" Mr Pyne tweeted this morning, saying he had been asleep at 2:00am when the "like" occurred.
Federal Labor wants an investigation into Cabinet minister Christopher Pyne's social media, after he blamed hackers for his Twitter account 'liking' an explicit gay pornographic video.