Anger at response to groping claims
Tory rebels have said that Boris Johnson’s handling of claims that a Conservative whip drunkenly groped two men had bolstered their efforts to oust him.
The prime minister’s critics have told The Times that the scandal embroiling No 10 and Chris Pincher, the former deputy chief whip, means he is more likely to lose support within the 1922 Committee of Tory backbenchers.
Rebels want to fill the executive of the committee with MPs who believe that Johnson should be replaced.
Pincher, 52, resigned from the government on Thursday night and admitted having ‘‘embarrassed myself and other people’’ in the Carlton Club the night before. It took until Friday evening for Johnson to withdraw the whip from Pincher after he heard a first-hand account of the events from an MP and discovered that it had been reported to a parliamentary watchdog.
Questions have been raised about what Johnson knew of Pincher’s conduct after claims that he described him as ‘‘handsy’’ two years before putting him in charge of party discipline. Yesterday Therese Coffey, the work and pensions secretary, said Johnson ‘‘didn’t know about specific allegations’’.
The Times has disclosed another allegation: that Pincher made an unwanted advance to a young member of the Conservatives while describing how he could help his political career. Further allegations emerged in media reports at the weekend.
The row threatens to dominate the run-up to the elections for 18 positions on the 1922 Committee’s executive. When Johnson narrowly won a confidence vote last month, he was granted a year’s immunity from a further challenge – but that rule can be changed by a simple majority vote on the executive.
The executive elections, likely to be held on Wednesday of next week, are now seen as a proxy leadership vote.
Opponents of Johnson were bullish about the effect of the Pincher row. ‘‘It has certainly sharpened minds to act because it all goes back to the prime minister,’’ one rebel ringleader said.
Another rebel said the row had ‘‘100 per cent’’ strengthened the campaign to oust Johnson. ‘‘What’s pissing people off is that Boris put Pincher in because of his loyalty in breaking the plots and getting people on board. His previous misdemeanours were excused,’’ the MP said.
Some rebels are discussing simply forcing Johnson to hold a confidence vote should 54 MPs, or 15% of the parliamentary party, demand one.
Under a compromise proposal, a rule would be introduced under which he would face a confidence vote if 25% – 90 MPs – submitted letters to Sir Graham Brady, the committee chairman.
‘‘This is a unifying manifesto point,’’ one MP thinking of standing said. ‘‘It unites those chomping at the Conservative member who says that Pincher, who was a foreign office minister at the time, made an unwanted advance to him at the party’s annual conference in Manchester in 2019.’’
The man, then in his 20s, was approached by Pincher late at night while he was queuing at the Midland Hotel bar. Pincher gave him a gin and tonic.
‘‘He started commenting on my suit – saying ‘That’s a really nice tailored suit,’ [and] holding my lapels,’’ the member said.
Pincher circulated the bar, then returned about half an hour later with another gin and tonic.
‘‘I knew he was an MP at that point; he’d given me his card,’’ the man said.
‘‘A lot of his chat was about helping me to become a politician. It was all very, ‘I can help you get where you need to be, on the candidate list, coach you.’ ’’
At about 2am the complainant said that he was leaving to go to bed. ‘‘As I went out the big security gates, I heard him shouting after me, ‘Wait up!’ I thought, ‘Oh, he’s following me. Great.’
‘‘He then followed me through the exit and came with me. He said, ‘My hotel is this way – I’ll come with you.’ ’’
Pincher suggested a ‘‘nightcap’’ at his hotel bar but when they passed it was closed. ‘‘I was like, ‘I’m going to go to Burger King so I’ll see you later,’’’ he said. ‘‘That’s where he actually followed me into Burger King, and while I did my order he was still just trying to chat to me, touching my suit. I said, ‘Can you just go to bed. It’s my bedtime.’ He said, ‘Well, I can come with you.’
‘‘I said, ‘No, absolutely not. First of all, I have a girlfriend; secondly – not interested.’ ’’
At that point Pincher ‘‘begrudgingly went away’’, the man said.
Neither Pincher nor his lawyers responded to a request for comment on the new allegation. He denied the weekend’s allegations and any suggestion that he had acted inappropriately. On Saturday he said he was seeking ‘‘professional medical support’’.