Peter Bone has been stripped of the Conservative party whip after the MP was found to have bullied and harassed a member of staff and exposed his genitals near their face. The chief whip, Simon Hart, made the decision the day after a parliamentary watchdog recommended Bone be suspended from the Commons for six weeks – paving the way to a possible byelection. A statement from Hart said: “Following a report by the independent expert panel, the chief whip has removed the Conservative whip from Peter Bone MP.” It means Bone will sit as an independent. He has denied all the allegations and vowed to continue representing his constituency of Wellingborough in Northamptonshire. After a lengthy investigation, an independent panel concluded on Monday that Bone had bullied and harassed an unnamed staff member over a three-month period in late 2012. His recommended six-week suspension is enough to trigger a recall petition, should MPs endorse it. If 10% of his constituents were to call for a recall, a byelection would then be held in the constituency Bone has represented since 2005. It is a safe Tory seat that Bone won with a majority of 19,000 at the last general election. However, bigger majorities have been overturned in recent byelections by Labour and the Liberal Democrats. A handful of Tory MPs are sympathetic to Bone and said he had written to the House of Commons speaker, Lindsay Hoyle, to fight the six-week suspension. He is believed to have argued that the events in question happened before the Recall Act was passed in 2015, and therefore he should not be punished under it. The prolonged tussle over his future means a potential byelection might still be some months off. However, Labour is understood to be ready to ramp up preparations in advance. The Lib Dems are not expected to strongly contest the seat. If Bone is unsuccessful in fighting a recall petition, sources suggested he could step down earlier. Wendy Chamberlain, the Lib Dem chief whip, has called for an inquiry by the Cabinet Office into what was known about Bone’s alleged behaviour when he was appointed a minister. Boris Johnson made Bone the deputy leader of the Commons, a non-essential role that had long remained vacant, in the final throes of his premiership. Chamberlain said “questions remain” over “what successive prime ministers knew about Peter Bone’s conduct”, as well as the handling of the case by Conservative central headquarters (CCHQ). She said: “We must know if those holding the highest public office in the land chose to turn a blind eye to these allegations. [Rishi] Sunak needs to now order a Cabinet Office inquiry so we can get to the bottom of this matter once and for all.” Anneliese Dodds, the Labour party chair, said: “If Rishi Sunak is to ever live up to his promise of integrity, professionalism and accountability he needs to urgently get a grip on his party. The people of Wellingborough deserve better. Only Labour can get our economy growing and give Britain its future back.” Earlier, the outgoing chair of the committee on standards in public life, Lord Evans, said there was “a responsibility on political parties to help – particularly their candidates but also their MPs and others active in political life – understand what the standards are and be helped to support them”.