Poundshop Weinstein’s VERY cosy dinner with Prosecutions Minister
THE former Government Whip forced to refer himself to police after he was branded a ‘poundshop Harvey Weinstein’ secretly dined with a Minister who supervises the Crown Prosecution Service 24 hours later, it emerged last night.
Chris Pincher, who quit his role after The Mail on Sunday revealed how he made a pass at former Olympic rower and Tory activist Alex Story while dressed in a bathrobe, met Solicitor General Robert Buckland at the Carlton Club in London on Monday.
The covert meeting is bound to lead to more questions about Mr Pincher – and could l and Mr Buckland in controversy. If police press charges against Mr Pincher for his alleged behaviour, the decision whether or not to prosecute will be taken by the CPS.
The secret Carlton Club dinner was also attended by two other Tory MPs named on the Westminster sex dossier. This newspaper has not named them since the claims against them on the dossier are unsubstantiated.
The members- only Carlton Club in St James’s Street was
‘You’ll go far in the Conservative Party’
founded by senior Tories 200 years s ago and its 1,600 members include e many senior Conservatives.
Mr Pincher stepped down from m the Whips’ Office and referred d himself to the Conservative Party’s y’s complaints procedure and the he police after this newspaper reported Mr Story’s claims.
Mr Pincher is said to have attempted to untuck Mr Story’s shirt after persuading him to come back to his London home. Mr Story, who competed in the 1996 Olympics, said Mr Pincher poured him a whisky, massaged his neck and whispered: ‘You’ll go far in the Conservative Party.’
Mr Pincher then disappeared into another room and ‘returned in a bathrobe like a poundshop Harvey Weinstein, with his chest and belly sticking out’, at which point Mr Story, who was 26 at the time, left.
Mr Pincher said: ‘If Mr Story has ever felt offended by anything I said then I can only apologise.’
Mr Pincher declined to comment. A friend of the MP said: ‘This was a regular social dinner between a group of Conservative MPs.’
Mr Buckland declined to comment last night.