Randy Rob Deserves The Rod

Nikolay Kalinin slams the slapdash attitude of the Conservative Party to the sex pestering of both men and women by ‘Randy Rob’ Roberts MP

Welsh Conservatives seem to be a completely different breed; not only is their leader secretly a robot – which can be clearly evidenced from the way he speaks – but their MPs seem to have a problem with texting young women and asking them for sexual favours. First, we had Stephen Crabb, who somehow is still MP, and now we have Rob Roberts, MP for Delyn.

Having been exposed by BBC Wales almost a year ago for sending sexual texts to a young intern and asking if she wanted to “fool around with no strings attached,” Roberts is now on the path to being suspended from the House of Commons, meaning that another by-election could be on the horizon.

On a separate occasion, Roberts – who came out as gay in May last year – reportedly made a male Commons staffer uncomfortable and even made him change jobs after the MP asked him out and the youngster declined.

Roberts has since announced that he is intending to appeal against the decision to suspend him, although his efforts are expected to fail. If the Committee on Standards votes to suspend Roberts for more than 10 working days, this could lead to a recall petition, which possibly would result in a by-election being triggered if more than 10% of constituents sign the petition.

May I just remind you that a few weeks ago, a Conservative party spokesperson revealed that the inquiry into the MP’s conduct had concluded that “Mr Roberts has apologised for his behaviour and was instructed to undertake safeguarding and social media protection training.”

I have several questions: Why was ‘Randy Rob’ unable to avoid accountability for almost a year, and why was his punishment a simple slap on the wrist? Doesn’t this treatment greatly contrast with the principle of accountability that’s so essential to British politics, and why hasn’t Stephen Crabb received the same punishment?

This case suggests that nothing much has changed in regards to the acceptance of the behaviour of MPs, even after people like Stephen Crabb, Mike Hill and Brooks Newmark got exposed for sending sexually suggestive texts had their political careers ended. These people all seem to have ‘David Mellor Syndrome,’ and that is worrying, because those are the people whom we elect to represent us and our interests, not so that they could use their position to get in bed with people more easily.

Pictured top: ‘Randy Rob’ Roberts MP with his promiscuous boss and “father of at least six children” Boris Johnson.