British MPs Indulged In ‘Sex Tourism’ On Trips Abroad, UK PM Rishi Sunak's Office 'Concerned': Report

10 Downing Street, the executive office of the UK Prime Minister, said that the reports on British MPs allegedly meeting sex workers in their hotel rooms were “very concerning”.

File Photo of Britain's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak at 10 Downing Street, central London.

Source : AFP

New Delhi: UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's office has expressed concerns over a scandal wherein British MPs reportedly met sex workers in their hotel rooms and indulged in excessive drinking amid parliamentary trips abroad.

10 Downing Street, the executive office of the British Prime Minister, stated that the reports were “very concerning”, The Guardian reported.

The Sunak’s deputy official spokesperson said that the oversight of trips taken by all-party parliamentary groups (APPGs) was a matter for parliament. He, however, expressed concern about the reports.

“We have seen some of the reports and some of the behaviour reported is clearly very concerning,” he said, as quoted by The Guardian.

“The prime minister believes MPs should be working hard for the public and the vast majority are focused on trying to solve our shared challenges, whether that be supporting the most vulnerable or working to making our schools better and streets safer. The regulation of APPGs is a matter for the House[s of Parliament] and the standards committee is conducting an ongoing inquiry into APPGs. The process around them is a matter for the house rather than government,” the deputy official spokesperson added.

The APPGs organise fact-finding trips for British MPs abroad where foreign governments or companies pay for their hospitality.

On Wednesday, the Times reported that some senior government figures are concerned that British parliamentarians and their peers are engaging in “sex and heavy drinking” on foreign visits. Moreover, incriminating evidence could be used against such persons.

According to The Times, Chris Bryant, the chairman of the Commons standards committee, remarked that it was “awfully easy” for the parliamentarians who want “to get up to no good” to do so through membership of such bodies.

Previously, Politico claimed that one former Conservative MP had asked about the nearest brothel when he visited a country in south-east Asia and a former minister stayed on after official trips to pursue his “interest in women”.