The Chris Pincher situation is much worse for the government than the Neil Parish one was. Parish was a backbencher, Pincher was – until his resignation – the deputy chief whip and had played a key role in the shadow whipping operation which shored up Boris Johnson at the start of the year.
Given the nature of the allegations against Pincher, it is hard to imagine that he will not have to give up the Conservative whip. Already, senior Tory MPs are publicly calling for him to lose the whip while this matter is investigated. No. 10 is making a mistake by sticking to its line that Pincher’s resignation is a sufficient response to the matter.
The other difficulty for the government is whether Pincher should have been given a job, and particularly one involving discipline, given that, as Tom notes, he had resigned from the whips office in 2017 over allegations about unwanted advances.
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