By-election called after Conservative MP suspended for bullying and sexual misconduct

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will face an electoral test early in the new year after voters in MP Peter Bone's seat triggered a by-election. North Northamptonshire Council has now confirmed that 13.2 per cent of the electorate in Wellingborough backed a petition to recall their MP.

The petition had been prompted after Mr Bone was handed a six-week suspension from the House of Commons after an inquiry found he had subjected a staff member to bullying and sexual misconduct. He has been sitting as an independent after losing the Conservative whip in the aftermath of the ruling.

The six-week process of the recall petition, which was prompted by his suspension, closed at 5pm today (December 19). The petition required 10 per cent of the 79,046 eligible voters in his constituency – 7,904 people in total – to trigger a by-election.

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Mr Bone has held the seat for the Conservatives since 2005 and retained it at the last general election with a majority of 18,540. After the closure of nine signing places across the constituency at 5pm, the votes were counted North Northamptonshire Council.

Petition officer Adele Wylie will now have to notify the Speaker of the House of Commons, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, before the seat becomes vacant. Mr Bone was found to have “committed many varied acts of bullying and one act of sexual misconduct” against a staff member in 2012 and 2013.

Parliament’s behaviour watchdog, the Independent Expert Panel, upheld an earlier investigation that found he broke the MPs’ code of conduct on four counts of bullying and one of