Mail on Sunday claims Delyn MP Rob Roberts is facing suspension from Commons over alleged inappropriate text messages

Delyn’s Conservative MP Rob Roberts is facing suspension from Commons over allegations of inappropriate behaviour towards a 21-year-old intern according to The Mail on Sunday.

In an ‘exclusive’ published today, The Mail of Sunday’s Deputy Political Editor, Anna Mikhailova claims the parliamentary standards commissioner has “concluded her report into Roberts and is proposing suspension.”

In a series of tweets outlining her story, Mikhailova said: “Roberts is currently appealing – but sources expect his appeal to fail.”

“If Roberts’ appeal is unsuccessful, the proposed suspension will be put to the Commons for a vote.”

“If it’s longer than 10 sitting days it could trigger a Recall Petition – which can end in a by-election in his marginal seat.”

EXCL: Tory MP Rob Roberts facing suspension from Commons over sexts scandal pic.twitter.com/j8f0IBMk8M

— Anna Mikhailova (@AVMikhailova) May 15, 2021

Mr Roberts appeared to have deactivated his Facebook page on Saturday evening ahead of The Mail on Sunday story being published, it is now back up.

Background.

On 21 July 2020, BBC Wales published text messages attributed to Roberts and sent to a female junior member of parliamentary staff in April 2020.

The text messages to the staff member suggested that she “fool around with no strings”.

Roberts told her he “might be gay but I enjoy … fun times”. The text messages continued after the intern reported struggling with her mental health.

In April 2021 the Conservative Party announced that Roberts had been “strongly rebuked”, but would not lose the whip.

Roberts was instructed to undertake safeguarding and social media protection training.