Grovelling apology that triggered the Cabinet quitters

BORIS Johnson issued a grovelling apology last night over the Chris Pincher row – but it was overshadowed by the resignations of two of his most senior Cabinet ministers.

The Prime Minister said he ‘bitterly regrets’ appointing the deputy chief whip and did not deny he had called him ‘Pincher by name, pincher by nature’.

The admission came after the former top Foreign Office civil servant, Lord McDonald, said the No10 account of what the Prime Minister knew of Mr Pincher’s conduct before making him deputy chief whip was ‘not true’.

Lord McDonald said Mr Johnson had been briefed ‘in person’ about claims against Mr Pincher in 2019.

The changing story of what Mr Johnson knew when about the disgraced MP appeared to be the final straw for Chancellor Rishi Sunak and Health Secretary Sajid Javid, who both quit last night around the time his interview was being screened. Last night, it was revealed that complaints of sexual assault were made to two police forces about Mr Pincher, who resigned last week following claims that he groped two men at a private members’ club.

Staffordshire Police received a report of sexual assault linked to Chris Pincher in May 2019, but no further action was taken in line with the wishes of the alleged victim. This complaint came a few months before his promotion to the Foreign Office – raising questions of who knew about it in No 10.

The Metropolitan Police also received a report detailing alleged sexual assault between 2010 and 2012. No further action was taken and no arrests were made. Mr Pincher is said to emphatically deny the allegations, according to Channel 4.

Mr Johnson’s official spokesman initially said that the Prime Minister wasn’t aware of any specific allegations against the MP when he appointed him, but later admitted that he was.

Yesterday, Downing Street said he had failed to remember he had been told that Mr Pincher was the subject of an official complaint in 2019.

In an interview with the BBC last night, Mr Johnson said that he should have sacked Mr Pincher when he was told about the claims against him when he was a Foreign Office minister. Mr Johnson went on to appoint him to other government roles.

Asked if that was an error, he said: ‘I think it was a mistake and I apologise for it. In hindsight, it was the wrong thing to do.

‘I apologise to everybody who has been badly affected by it. I want to make absolutely clear that there’s no place in this Government for anybody who is predatory or who abuses their position of power.’

He did not deny having previously referred to the MP as ‘Pincher by name, pincher by nature’. The Prime Minister’s spokesman confirmed that Mr Johnson was briefed on the complaint by officials at the Foreign Office in 2019, a ‘number of months’ after it took place.