Ex-Tory MP Aaron Bell reprimanded for 'drunken' sexual misconduct

The investigation conducted interviews with the complainant, eye witnesses and Bell. It also reviewed WhatsApp messages between those involved.

Bell told the investigator “I was clearly drunk” and that he could not “recall everything about the evening”.

The report states: “He said he remembered touching the complainant’s thigh, “probably her waist”, but he denied touching her bottom.

"His account was that there was mutual flirting, which led to his touching the complainant.

"But in relation to his suggestion of flirting, he added that: ‘Probably, to be fair, more from me to her than the other way round’.

"The complainant denied any mutual flirting or encouragement in any way."

The complainant told the investigator she felt “really uncomfortable” and called his conduct “incredibly brazen”.

Reviewing the investigation, the parliamentary commissioner for standards said the MP's claim of mutual flirting was "contradicted by the complainant’s evidence and by that of the two eyewitnesses".

"Further, the commissioner stated that the respondent’s description of the alleged mutual flirting was ‘too general to be persuasive and, in any event, would not justify touching without specific consent’," the report said.

Bell was first elected to Parliament in 2019, winning the former Labour stronghold of Newcastle-Under-Lyme in Staffordshire.

He was highly critical of Boris Johnson over his handling of the Partygate scandal and in February 2022 called on the then-prime minister to step down.

He served in the whip's office - the team responsible for managing party discipline - from November 2023 until July 2024.