LONDON — A Conservative MP has been ordered to apologize in the House of Commons Monday after parliament’s standards watchdog found he breached the code of conduct on bullying.
Daniel Kawczynski, the MP for Shrewsbury and Atcham, berated a member of select committee staff after technical difficulties with an online meeting in April 2020, calling them “useless” and part of “the snowflake generation.”
He was “repeatedly rude, aggressive and impatient” and made “critical and untruthful comments” about the complainant on a WhatsApp group, according to evidence gathered by the Standards Commissioner Kathryn Stone.
Stone also found that Kawczynski had displayed similar behavior toward colleagues on several other occasions, and had phoned the complainant’s manager to criticize them while drunk.
The Tory MP did not dispute the facts of the complaint, but said he had been under extreme pressure at the time and apologized in writing to the member of staff.
However, he appealed a decision by the independent expert panel that he ought to offer an apology in the Commons, arguing this would be bad for his mental health. The panel rejected his appeal.
Kawczynski, who was first elected in 2005 and has previously sat on several select committees, told BBC Shropshire he had never raised his voice or used inappropriate language, and that he feels bullied by the system.
The case represents the first upheld complaint of bullying that has been published by the panel since an independent grievance system for parliament was set up in 2018.
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