Shropshire Star

Wrekin MP Mark Pritchard to complain about minister's 'entrapment' over naked pictures

Wrekin MP Mark Pritchard is to complain to the newly-formed press regulator over the "entrapment" that led to the resignation of Brooks Newmark as a minister after he sent naked pictures of himself to an undercover reporter posing as a young Conservative campaigner.

Published

Mr Newmark, a married father of five, resigned as Minister for Civil Society when he became aware the revelations would be made public in the Sunday Mirror.

MrPritchard said he would be referring the newspaper to the Independent Press Standards Organisation (Ipso).

He said: "It is in the public interest that their actions are fully investigated. This is the first real test as to whether the new body, Ipso, has any teeth."

Mr Pritchard tweeted:

Meanwhile, Tory MPs from Shropshire today also spoke of their dismay and anger at the latest defection to Ukip.

Mark Reckless had continuously denied he was going to defect right up until the act, which was widely seen as a betrayal by his former party.

The MP for Rochester and Strood shook the Tory conference in Birmingham by defecting, on the eve of delegates arriving in the city.

The mood was further darkened by the resignation of Mr Newmark.

Mr Pritchard said he felt personally let down by Mr Reckless.

He recalled working with Mr Reckless on a European Union amendment and said: "He has been claiming that that he 'won that vote' on that EU budget cut and I'm saying that I co-drafted that amendment with him, that we did it together. He did not win that vote.

"Secondly, just two weeks ago, I personally asked him 'Are you going to go to Ukip?' He looked me straight in the eye and said 'No.'

"So I am disappointed on those two claims alone."

Shrewsbury and Atcham MP Daniel Kawczynski said: "By joining Ukip, he makes it more likely that there will be a Labour MP, even government. So the choice is a Conservative government offering a referendum or a Labour government not offering one."

North Shropshire MP Owen Paterson, said he refused to allow Mr Reckless to spoil a "positive" atmosphere at the conference and said the party needed to go forward with "robust" policies.

Tory Conference diary:

The Shropshire Star's Shirley Tart gives us her Tory Conference diary from Birmingham's International Conference Centre.

Whatever Charities Minister Brooks Newmark has been up to, was yesterday's revelation about his private life as Tories gathered in Birmingham, just chance?

Coming as it did just hours after the defection of MP Mark Reckless, could somebody have planned it for maximum embarrassment? Probably not, we're all getting paranoid now.

However, I saw the Reckless performance when he made a long, droning speech before actually announcing what we could already see, that he was leaving the Tories for UKIP and so becoming the second Conservative MP within weeks to abdicate, hoping to turn his Rochester and Strood constituency in Kent into a victory for Ukip, with him still as the MP.

And all on the back of the hard work of so many loyal, committed volunteers. Yet somehow both he and Mr Newmark ended the day by being called honourable. One for resigning, the other for being honest. Depends how you interpret honourable, doesn't it?

+++

When David Cameron writes his book – yes, he surely will – this last week must qualify for a remarkable chapter. Saving Scotland, facing the United Nations in New York, recalling Parliament, standing up at Westminster to declare war, then nipping off to Birmingham to lead your party in its annual conference while losing a couple of members to shame and UKIP respectively, is some feat. And guess what – Scotland and war in Iraq, were set to be the chattiest topics in the restaurants and bars at the Second City's International Convention Centre. Until Messrs Reckless and Newmark jumped into the limelight.

No surprise there then, eh?

+++

The thing which raised an eyebrow was Mr F encouraging everyone to join in backing the weekend's big golf tournament by throwing our support behind Europe's Ryder Cup Team. Get it? He who wants to unravel us from nasty old Europe – pretty impossible anyway – now wants us to cheer on its elite sportsmen.

Sorry, we are not accepting comments on this article.