Tory MPs are exhausted. Speak to them and they just want all these scandals to go away. One normally cheerful backbencher told me they ‘have never been so depressed about politics’ and that most of their colleagues feel the same way.
The Chris Pincher scandal is particularly grim. Regardless of whether No. 10 knew about any specific allegation or not, you can’t get round the fact that Pincher resigned in 2017 over unwanted advances and was then reappointed. (Interestingly, it was Theresa May who first brought him back. It is another demonstration that in Westminster when someone is very good at a job that is vital for the leader there is a tendency to overlook all sorts of things).
Pincher has been at the heart of Johnson operation in recent months, first as part of the shadow whipping operation and then as deputy chief whip. His role is one of the things that makes this far more serious than the Neil Parish embarrassment.
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