Patrick Spencer, the Conservative MP for Central Suffolk and North Ipswich, has been found not guilty of two counts of sexual assault following a trial at Southwark Crown Court. The verdicts were returned on 17 July 2026 after a jury of eight men and four women deliberated for seven hours and six minutes (BBC News).

Spencer, 38, had been accused of touching the breasts of two women in separate incidents at the Groucho Club in central London in August 2023. He denied both charges throughout. The jury acquitted him on both counts.

The trial followed a legal process that began in June 2025, when Spencer appeared at Westminster Magistrates' Court and entered not guilty pleas to the two charges of sexual assault (Reuters). The case was then sent for trial at the Crown Court.

The Conservative Party had suspended the whip when the charges were brought, leaving Spencer sitting as an independent during the proceedings (The Guardian).

During the trial, the court heard details of the alleged incidents at the Groucho Club, a private members' club in Soho. Spencer gave evidence in his own defence and denied a prosecution suggestion that he had fist-pumped in celebration after one of the alleged assaults (Sky News).

As the not guilty verdicts were read, Spencer sobbed with relief and hugged his wife in the courtroom (BBC News).

The acquittal closes a legal process that lasted just over a year from first court appearance to verdict. The case attracted political attention because of Spencer's status as a sitting MP and the fact that he had been suspended from the Conservative parliamentary party while the charges were pending.

Spencer was elected as MP for Central Suffolk and North Ipswich, a constituency in the east of England. The whip suspension meant he was unable to sit as a Conservative in the Commons while the case was live.

The broader context for Westminster is unhelpful but familiar. Sexual misconduct allegations against sitting MPs have repeatedly surfaced in recent years, each one testing the Party's procedures for handling the whip and the balance between an MP's right to the presumption of innocence and the reputational risk to the parliamentary party. The standard approach has been to suspend the whip when charges are brought and leave any reinstatement decision until after the legal process concludes. Spencer's acquittal will now put that logic to the test: the Conservative chief whip will face a decision on whether to restore the whip, and on what timeline.

What remains unclear is whether any internal party process will run alongside or separately from that decision. The party has not, on the basis of the verified facts available, indicated its next step. For Spencer himself, the acquittal removes the criminal dimension entirely, but the political dimension of the case will likely play out in the weeks ahead.