Chris Pincher seeking professional help after
drunken groping claims
Tory party and PM face mounting pressure over scandal
as former deputy chief whip says he respects decision to suspend him
Miranda
Bryant and Jane Clinton
Sat 2 Jul
2022 17.01 BST
Chris
Pincher has said he is seeking professional help following claims that he
drunkenly groped two men.
The former
deputy chief whip, who resigned following the allegations, said he respected
the prime minister’s decision to suspend the whip and would “cooperate fully”
with an inquiry into his behaviour.
He said he
was “truly sorry” and hoped to return to his duties as an MP “as soon as
possible”.
In a
statement, the Tamworth MP said: “I respect the prime minister’s decision to
suspend the whip whilst an inquiry is under way, and I will cooperate fully
with it. As I told the prime minister, I drank far too much on Wednesday night,
embarrassing myself and others and I am truly sorry for the upset I caused.”
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He added:
“The stresses of the last few days, coming on top of those over the last
several months, have made me accept that I will benefit from professional
medical support. I am in the process of seeking that now, and I hope to be able
to return to my constituency duties as soon as possible.”
It comes as
one man who accused the MP of groping him said he had been left “furious” and
“shell-shocked” that Boris Johnson failed to suspend Pincher immediately.
Speaking to
the Sunday Times on condition of anonymity, the man, who is in his
mid-twenties, alleges that shortly after buying a round of drinks in the club’s
Macmillian bar, Pincher “grabbed my arse and then slowly … moved his hand down
the front of my groin”.
The man,
who said it was the first time he had met the MP, claims he “froze a bit” and
it “ended after about two or three seconds. It was a very bizarre thing”.
The Sunday
Times said the man’s account was corroborated by an MP at the club.
At first,
the man said he wasn’t going to take the matter further thinking it was
“something that happens in Westminster”. But he was left “angry by the way No
10 have dealt with it” and was “furious” and “shell-shocked” when he found out
that Pincher was initially going to keep the whip.
Pincher has
been suspended as a Conservative MP and faces an investigation by parliament’s
complaints watchdog following the allegations.
His
comments came as the Conservative party and Johnson faced mounting pressure on
Saturday over the scandal.
The shadow
armed forces minister Luke Pollard claimed parliament was “not a safe place to
work” and called for higher standards in politics.
“We need a
wholesale change in this because, I’m afraid, parliament is not a safe place to
work as it should be for so many of the young people in particular who work
there,” the Labour MP told Sky News.
“We need to
be setting higher standards than we have at the moment, but I’m afraid the
culture is set from the top, and the prime minister has been so very clear that
standards in public life – decency, integrity, honesty – don’t apply.”
Meanwhile,
the prime minister faced questions over why he delayed suspending the Tory whip
from Pincher.
Pincher
stepped down from his position in the Conservative whips’ office, where his
responsibilities included maintaining party discipline, on Thursday.
Following a
formal complaint made against him to parliament’s Independent Complaints and
Grievance Scheme (ICGS), he will now have to sit as an independent outside the
group.
The prime
minister’s official spokesperson denied on Friday that Johnson had known about
“specific” claims before appointing Pincher as deputy chief whip in February.
However, a No 10 source said Johnson “probably” knew about rumours over his
sexual conduct.
Dominic
Cummings, Johnson’s former chief aide, accused the prime minister of “lying
again” and claimed that Johnson referred to the MP as “Pincher by name, pincher
by nature” long before appointing him.
The
Conservative MP Andrew Bridgen suggested that Downing Street was guilty of
“double standards” as a result of its approach to handling the Pincher scandal
in comparison with that of Neil Parish, who stood down as an MP after admitting
to watching pornography in the House of Commons.
The MP for
North West Leicestershire told BBC Newsnight: “Neil was a very
independent-minded Conservative backbencher; he never really sought patronage
and he did hold ministers to account.
“Chris
Pincher is seen as an arch-loyalist and I think that, to most people, will be
the reason for the difference in their treatment. And that’s not tenable
either.”
Caroline
Nokes and Karen Bradley, two senior Tory MPs who chair Commons select
committees, called for Johnson to bring in a “zero-tolerance” policy over
sexual misconduct claims.
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