Peter Bone

Bone was a member of the 1922 Committee and was an executive member from 2007 to 2012.

Peter William Bone (born 19 October 1952) is a British politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Wellingborough from 2005 until 2023.

A member of the Conservative Party, he had sat as an independent in the House of Commons after the Conservative whip was withdrawn from him in 2023, until he was removed by a recall petition in December of that year.

He campaigned for Brexit in the EU referendum and was part of the political advisory board of Leave Means Leave.

From July to September 2022, he served as Deputy Leader of the House of Commons.

On 16 October 2023, following a complaint made in October 2021, Bone was recommended to be suspended from the House of Commons by the Independent Expert Panel after a report found he had "committed many varied acts of bullying and one act of sexual misconduct" against a male member of his staff.

Bone was born on 19 October 1952 in Billericay in Essex.

He was educated at Westcliff High School for Boys, a grammar school.

Bone qualified as a chartered accountant in 1976.

He was elected as the deputy chairman of the Southend West Conservative Association in 1977 and continued in the position until 1984.

In 1978, Bone was elected as a councillor for the Blenheim ward on Southend-on-Sea Borough Council, where he served for eight years, until 1986.

In 1982, he became press secretary to the Conservative MP Paul Channon.

He unsuccessfully contested the parliamentary seat of Islwyn in the South Wales valleys at the 1992 general election against the then Leader of the Opposition Neil Kinnock.

Bone subsequently fought the European Parliament election in 1994 for Mid and West Wales, coming third.

Bone was chosen for the previously safe Conservative seat of Pudsey in West Yorkshire following the retirement of the veteran MP Giles Shaw at the 1997 general election, but lost following a swing of 13.2% to Labour's Paul Truswell.

In the 2001 general election he fought the ultra-marginal seat of Wellingborough in Northamptonshire, where the sitting Labour MP Paul Stinchcombe held a majority of just 187, having defeated the veteran Conservative MP Peter Fry in 1997.

Stinchcombe held on to his seat by 2,355, a swing of 2.1% to Labour.

In the 2005 general election, Mr Bone ousted Stinchcombe in Wellingborough with a majority of 687 votes, a swing of 2.9%.

Bone made his maiden speech on 7 June 2005.

Early on in his career, he was described as one of the most active MPs in Parliament, in terms of questions asked and other contributions.

However, the quality of those interventions was questioned in a 2006 article in The Times about the Theyworkforyou website.

Bone was one of three MPs specifically alleged to have "boosted their ratings on the internet by saying very little, very often."

Among his 109 speeches was one which ran to three short sentences (standing up for Royal Mail in that a sub-postmaster in Little Irchester had the only business in the village).

He regularly referenced his then wife "Mrs Bone" in parliamentary questions and debates.

In March 2009, Bone was one of the key speakers opposing the use of the House of Commons by the UK Youth Parliament, having been appointed one of the Tellers.

Although Bone was not mentioned in the 2009 Legg Report that was central to the official investigation into the United Kingdom parliamentary expenses scandal and therefore was not one of the 343 MPs required to pay back any money, he was subject to some later reports relating to his expenses.

He was one of 32 MPs who claimed the maximum allowance of £4,800 a year for food in 2010 and came under investigation in 2014 for expenses claims relating to the upkeep of his second home.

At the 2010 general election Bone was re-elected as the MP for Wellingborough with an increased majority of 18,540 votes, achieving a swing of 6.15%.

Bone proposed a bill in July 2013, arguing that the August Bank Holiday should be renamed to Margaret Thatcher Day to commemorate her premiership.

The bill ran out of time, due to filibustering by Labour MPs and formally ended its passage through Parliament in 2014.

In February 2014, The Times newspaper reported that Bone had been under investigation by the police during the previous 12 months relating to an alleged £100,000 fraud concerning benefit payments of care home fees for his mother-in-law.

Bone issued a lengthy statement denying fraud allegations.

In March 2014, the Crown Prosecution Service said it had concluded that there was insufficient evidence to bring criminal charges.

Bone was frequently critical of the coalition government of the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats.

The recommended suspension length of six weeks, subsequently confirmed by the Commons, triggered a recall petition under the Recall of MPs Act 2015.

Bone denied the claims against him and said the investigation was "flawed" and "procedurally unfair".

On 17 October, Bone lost the Conservative whip, but continued to sit as an independent until a successful recall petition in Wellingborough vacated his seat on 19 December 2023.

In the 2015 general election, he increased his majority by 1,347 achieving 52.1% of the votes cast, and was re-elected in the 2017 general election with a decreased majority of 12,460.

In 2016.

he was criticised for using the government's help-to-buy scheme, which was meant to help young first time buyers, to buy himself a new constituency home.