Neil Parish, the Tory MP who has said he will resign after admitting watching pornography in the House of Commons, has a strong interest in farming, the countryside and animal welfare issues. The announcement on Saturday of his planned resignation comes after a 12-year parliamentary career in which the MP for Tiverton and Honiton had rarely – if ever – been elevated to national importance. A farmer and former member of the European parliament for south-west England, and a councillor before that, Parish, 65, was part of the 2010 parliamentary intake when he won what has increasingly become a safe Tory seat. Since then, he had avoided controversy and has served since 2015 as chair of the environment, food and rural affairs select committee (Efra). Before entering politics, Parish managed the family farm in Somerset after leaving school at 16. He was elected to the European parliament in 1999 but did not stand for re-election in 2009, having already been selected as the Conservative candidate for Tiverton and Honiton at the 2010 general election. He was subsequently elected with a majority of 24,239 over the Labour party. Parish is married to Sue, 66, who he employs as a junior secretary, and they have two children, Jonathan and Harriet, and two grandchildren. His leisure interests include music and swimming. The MP’s website also lists “the politics of Africa” as being among his other interests, adding that a ban on him re-entering Zimbabwe after he criticised Robert Mugabe’s regime in his capacity as an election monitor remained in place to this day. The MP had said this week that he also wore “as a badge of honour” the fact that he was among more than 280 MPs who had been “sanctioned” by Russia.