MPs approve five-day Parliament suspension for Neil Coyle

MP Neil Coyle has been suspended for five days after an investigation found he breached Parliament’s bullying and harassment policy during two encounters after “excessive” drinking.

Mr Coyle will be barred from the parliamentary estate and unable to take part in debates for the duration of his punishment from March 13 to 17.

MPs approved the motion approving an Independent Expert Panel report, which included the recommended suspension, on Tuesday evening.

Their report into Mr Coyle’s conduct found he broke the rules with “foul-mouthed and drunken abuse” of another MP’s assistant and language targeted at political journalist Henry Dyer.

Both incidents investigated under Parliament’s Independent Complaints and Grievance Scheme (ICGS) occurred in Parliament’s Strangers’ Bar.

Mr Coyle, who has spoken about quitting alcohol for a year and has pleaded with Sir Keir Starmer to readmit him to the Labour parliamentary party, accepted he was drunk on both occasions.

In an apology in the Commons on Friday, the independent MP for Bermondsey and Old Southwark said he was “ashamed” of his behaviour and the intervention had “quite possibly saved my life” by compelling him to stop drinking.