Ex-Labour MP Neil Coyle faces being suspended from Commons for FIVE DAYS after probe condemns ‘drunken abuse’ of staffer and ‘racial’ harassment of journalist
Neil Coyle faces being suspended from the House of Commons for five days after a probe condemned his abusive behaviour.
The Parliamentary watchdog has recommended the punishment over two incidents in the Strangers’ Bar on the estate.
The first saw Mr Coyle target another MP’s assistant with ‘foul-mouthed and drunken abuse’.
In the other Mr Coyle was found to have harassed a journalist with invective that had ‘racial overtone’.
Neil Coyle faces being suspended from the House of Commons for five days after a probe condemned his abusive behaviour. He has been sitting as an independent MP after having the Labour whip removed
Mr Coyle, who has been sitting as an independent MP for Bermondsey and Old Southwark after having the Labour whip withdrawn, has accepted the conclusions of the the Independent Expert Panel and the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner.
Earlier this week the 44-year-old gave an interview insisting he has now given up drinking alcohol.
The Panel recommended a two-day suspension in relation to the first incident, and three days for the second.
Political journalist Henry Dyer, who now works for the Guardian, said: ‘Everyone working in Parliament should be able to do so without harassment and abuse.
‘I spoke out to raise awareness of racism, particularly anti-Asian racism, and of inappropriate conduct.
‘I am grateful to the ICGS for the way in which they have handled this matter, and to my colleagues and friends for their support and kindness. I am pleased this process has concluded and I can get on with my work as a journalist reporting on Westminster.’
The report said that ‘in relation to both episodes, it was clear that very marked abuse of alcohol was at the root of events’.
Speaking to the Mirror earlier this week, Mr Coyle said he drank excessively five nights a week and after the deaths of his father and a close friend in 2021, he drank even more.
He would sink three or four pints an hour in Parliament’s Strangers’ Bar.
But a doctor told him he would have a stroke or heart attack and die if he did not stop.
