Neil Parish, a member of parliament since 2010, was suspended from the parliamentary party after reporting himself to a standards commissioner, said a spokesperson for the party's chief whip, who oversees discipline.
"Having spoken to the chief whip this afternoon, Neil Parish MP is reporting himself to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards," the spokesperson said.
"Mr Parish has been suspended from the Conservative Whip pending the outcome of that investigation."
Asked whether he understood the upset caused to people by the case, including female colleagues, Parish said, "Of course I can understand why they are concerned and I can only apologize for the situation."
Asked also by reporters whether he had opened something on his phone in error, Parish said: "I did, but let the inquiry look at that."
Two female colleagues reported Parish, the MP for Tiverton and Honiton, to the Tory chief whip on Tuesday but his name was only made public on Friday, at which point he was suspended from the parliamentary party.
On Thursday, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that watching pornography in any workplace would be unacceptable.
The outcry comes just at a time when Johnson and his party are under pressure over partygate when the country was under strict lockdown rules.
Johnson is facing an investigation over whether he lied to parliament about those parties.
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