Chris Pincher remains a Tory MP this morning, but how long will that be the case? The Conservative deputy chief whip resigned from the government last night, following allegations that he groped two men at a private members’ club on Wednesday evening.
In a letter to Boris Johnson, Pincher said he ‘drank far too much’ and ’embarrassed myself and other people’. But while the Prime Minister accepted Pincher’s resignation from the whips’ office, it is believed that Downing Street is reluctant to kick Pincher out of the party because of the speed with which he admitted what he’d done.
In a letter to Boris Johnson, Pincher said he ’drank far too much’ and ’embarrassed myself and other people’
Pincher is a firm ally of the Prime Minister and said in his resignation letter that Boris Johnson would continue to have his ‘full support from the back benches’. Yet it seems hard to see how the government can continue to resist calls to launch an investigation into what happened at the Carlton Club in St James.
Part of the problem for Boris Johnson is that this isn’t the first time Pincher has found himself in hot water. The Tory MP previously stood down from the whips’ office in 2017 after he was accused of making an unwanted pass at former Olympic rower and Conservative activist Alex Story. On that occasion, Pincher was cleared of any breach of the party’s code of conduct following an investigation involving a panel headed by an independent QC. That probe into what happened allowed Pincher – and the Tory party – to move on.
This time, however, the Tories are keen to accept Pincher’s resignation and leave it at that. It’s safe to say that Labour is unwilling to allow that to happen. Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper called what happened a ‘total disgrace’. While Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner said:
‘There cannot be any question of the Conservatives sweeping a potential sexual assault under the carpet. The Conservative party is so mired in sleaze and scandal that it is totally unable to tackle the challenges facing the British people.’
How long can Boris Johnson hold the line and avoid kicking Pincher out of the party?
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