London: A 71-year-old Conservative MP who blocked a bill that would have made "upskirting" a criminal offence in the UK today took a U-turn, asserting that he was not a "pervert" and "wholeheartedly" supports such a law.
Had the law passed last week, someone secretly taking a photo up a woman's skirt in the country could have faced up to two years in prison.
Sir Christopher Chope, who faced criticism, including from prime minister Theresa May for blocking the law, said he was objecting to parliamentary procedure rather than the law itself.
The Christchurch MP told his local paper, the Bournemouth Echo that he was not "a dinosaur" and was being "scapegoated".
Prime minister May said she was "disappointed" that one of her own MPs had prevented the bill from progressing.
She added that she wanted to see the measures passed soon.
Sir Christopher said upskirting was "vulgar, humiliating and unacceptable" and said accusations he was "some kind of pervert" were "a complete travesty of the truth".
"It's defamatory of my character and it's very depressing some of my colleagues have been perpetuating that in the past 48 hours," he added.
He explained that he stopped the bill from progressing because he disapproved of how the legislation was being brought in.
"The government has been hijacking time that is rightfully that of backbenchers," he said.
"This is about who controls the House of Commons on Fridays and that's where I am coming from."
He accused the government of trying to "bring in what it wants on the nod", adding: "We don't quite live in the Putin era yet."
The bill was expected to sail through the Commons last Friday, but parliamentary rules mean it only required one MP to shout "object" to block its progress.
Sir Christopher's intervention was met with shouts of "shame" from other MPs.
His actions were attacked by MPs - many from his own party.
Scottish Conservative MP Paul Masterton said the intervention did "damage" to the public's view of the party.
Victims said a specific law prohibiting the craze was necessary as current legislation was often insufficient to prosecute an offender.
