Tory MP Andrew Bridgen quizzed by Police over sex assault claim on 29 year old woman in London, this is a real shocker for Westminster!

Dear All

This is a shocker even by Westminster terms.

Conservative MP Andrew Bridgen has been arrested on suspicion of sexual assault.

The married MP for North West Leicestershire was arrested in central London in the early hours of Thursday morning.

Bridgen is a backbench MP and former Royal Marine, who entered Parliament only last year and is accused of assaulting a 29-year-old woman.

So far, the MP for North West Leicestershire has not charged and has also been released on police bail until the middle of next month.

At present, the Conservative Party is declining all comment on the arrest, saying it was a "matter for the police".

Adding:

"He has been bailed to return on a date in mid-July."

Police have also declined to confirm the identity of the arrested man but a spokesman indicated that the address in SW1, the London postcode which includes Westminster was not the Houses of Parliament.

Mr Bridgen and wife Jacqueline were married in 2000 and have two sons, Alexander and Benjamin.

After training as an officer in the Royal Marines, he worked for his family's gardening business and set up a fruit and vegetable firm with his brother in 1988.

He won the marginal Leicestershire North West seat back from Labour in 2010 with a swing of nearly 12%, after the early death of Labour MP David Taylor.

A Eurosceptic, who was active in the Business for Sterling campaign to save the pound, he told MPs in his maiden Commons speech he accepted the description of "little Englander".

In the Commons, he is a member of the Regulatory Reform Select Committee.

Now, he is in the press for all the wrong reasons and the reputation of Parliament will suffer greatly if the claims against him hold up.

As I say, this is a real shocker.

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University