The former Tory whip who was suspended as an MP for allegedly groping two male colleagues said on Saturday he was seeking ‘professional medical support’ for his problems as the latest Tory sex scandal caused Boris even more problems Johnson.
Chris Pincher, who was referred to the Independent Complaints and Grievance System over the incidents at the Carlton Club in central London on Wednesday evening, said he was ‘truly sorry’ and hoped to be able to serve his voters “as soon as possible.”
The MP for Tamworth resigned as Deputy Chief Whip on Thursday after the allegations emerged. Pincher said at the time that he drank too much and “embarrassed myself and other people”.
But Johnson was embroiled in controversy when he initially resisted calls for further action against Pincher, who is a close ally of the prime minister. While several senior Tories have demanded the whip’s removal due to earlier allegations of inappropriate behavior against Pincher, Johnson said the matter should be considered closed, only to change course and suspend him on Friday when more details emerged. made public.
In 2017, Pincher left a more junior position in the whips’ office after claiming to have made unwanted advances to another Conservative colleague. Despite this, he was later promoted to Deputy Chief Whip, which involves disciplining MPs and providing pastoral care.
A former cabinet minister said on Saturday the whole incident had not only brought shame to Pincher, but brought further discredit to Downing Street. “The reaction from No 10 was disastrous, combining utter ineptitude and dishonesty. If the Prime Minister was unaware of this guy’s case, as was the suggestion, he is the only person in all of Westminster who was.
In a statement on Saturday, Pincher – the latest of several Tories to be embroiled in sex-related scandals in recent weeks – said: ‘I respect the Prime Minister’s decision to suspend the Whip while an investigation is ongoing , and I will cooperate fully with this.As I told the Prime Minister, I drank far too much on Wednesday evening, inconveniencing myself and others, and I am truly sorry for the upset I have caused. stress of the last few days, added to that of the last few months, made me agree to benefit from professional medical support. I am looking for this now, and I hope to be able to return to my constituency duties as soon as possible. as possible.
The Pincher saga comes just a week after Johnson and his party suffered devastating double by-election defeats at the hands of the Liberal Democrats and Labour, in contests in Tiverton and Honiton, Devon, and Wakefield, Yorkshire , both of which were triggered when the Conservative incumbents had to step down over sex scandals.
Increasingly, senior Tories are beginning to lay the groundwork to remove Johnson from office, as fears grow that the electorate has turned against them over Partygate, the cost-of-living crisis and a broader sense of indiscipline and decadence at the heart of government.
As Downing Street insists that Johnson – who will face a grilling by select committee chairs at a Commons Liaison Committee meeting on Wednesday – is determined to fight, a growing number of his MPs believe that he cannot lead them to the next elections if the party is to have any chance of clinging to power.
Some are now predicting that Johnson could face an ultimatum from the dreaded “men in gray suits” to step down before the Conservative Party conference in October.
The Observer has been told that since 148 of 180 Tory MPs refused to back the Prime Minister in a confidence vote on June 7 – 32 fewer than the number needed to trigger his immediate impeachment under party rules – other letters were written to Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 Conservative backbench committee, demanding that Johnson resign. Party bigwigs now believe it is possible that the number of Tory MPs sending letters to Brady will reach 50% of the parliamentary party by the end of the two-week period in September, when Parliament returns, but before the Conservative rally in Birmingham.
Johnson’s critics believe that if that is the case then Brady could inform the prime minister that he has lost the confidence of a majority of his parliamentary party and ask him to leave. This option would avoid a scenario in which the executive of the 1922 Committee would have to change the rules on leadership elections, to allow for a second vote of confidence to be held soon. According to the rules, another vote of confidence is not possible until at least one year after the last one.
Labor’s Luke Pollard, a shadow defense minister, said: ‘This is yet another example of Tory sorcery that has been mishandled by the Prime Minister. Politics really should reflect the best of our values as a country and I fear what we are seeing right now is yet another Tory MP after Tory MP doing something utterly appalling and seemingly protected by Downing Street.
“If the Prime Minister had an ounce of decency, [he] would have removed the whip immediately, not waiting to see if he could sit down to reward this arch-loyalist with a little more protection.
theguardian Gt