Peter Bone used the Help to Buy scheme to buy a house under his wife’s name

Information reaching Kossyderrickent has it that Peter Bone used the Help to Buy scheme (intended for young people) to buy a house under his wife’s name.

The Conservative MP Peter Bone repeatedly hit and verbally abused a member of his staff, often asked him for massages and on one occasion put his bare genitals in the other man’s face, according to a report by a Commons regulator.

Bone, one of the most prominent members of the campaign for Britain to leave the EU, was found by the independent expert panel to have bullied and harassed his staff member over a three-month period in late 2012.

The non-political panel recommended Bone be suspended from the Commons for six weeks, enough to trigger a recall petition if upheld by the whole house, and potentially another difficult byelection for the Tories.

The panel’s report, published on Monday, found Bone had “verbally belittled, ridiculed, abused and humiliated” the unnamed employee. It said the veteran MP “repeatedly physically struck and threw things” at him.

Mr Bone denied the accusations throughout and appealed against its findings, arguing the investigation had been flawed.

However, his appeal was dismissed by a sub-panel, which said the investigation had been carried out correctly.

According to the report, the complainant had kept a detailed log of Mr Bone’s behaviour at the time, and had submitted “compelling, nuanced and plausible” evidence.

It also found his account of events was backed up by witnesses at work, and family members with whom he had spoken about his experiences.

In a statement released on Monday after the watchdog released its final report, Mr Bone said the allegations were “false and untrue”.

He added that the probe by the IEP – the body set up in June 2020 to examine bullying and sexual misconduct complaints against MPs – was “flawed” and “procedurally unfair”.

The investigation was triggered following a complaint made in October 2021 with a prior complaint to the Conservative Party – made in 2017 – unresolved.

According to its report, the IEP found that at this stage, the Tory party investigation had “apparently not progressed very far”.

The panel formally began a full investigation in August 2022, with the staffer withdrawing the complaint to the party to stop the two inquiries running in parallel.

The Conservative Party said it had opened an investigation into the complaint, but “the complainant withdrew from the process before the case was heard”.

In his statement to the BBC, the complainant called on the Conservatives and other parties to review their complaints procedures “with full independent oversight”.

“It should not take five years for a complaint to be processed,” he added.