Tories set to clear minister fired over sexual misconduct claims

A MINISTER who was sacked over a claim of serious misconduct at the Tory party conference will, reportedly, be cleared by an internal investigation.

Conor Burns is to be exonerated by Conservative officials after another individual who was involved made no complaint, The Mail on Sunday said.

Mr Burns was dismissed from his post at the Department for International Trade and stripped of the Tory whip last month. Liz Truss, as prime minister, kicked him out after an allegation that he had been spotted touching a young man’s thigh at a hotel bar.

She acted within hours of the claim emerging and Mr Burns later accused Ms Truss of “rushing to judgment” as he vowed to “clear his name”.

Conservative Campaign Headquarters (CCHQ) launched an inquiry into the claims which is now set to exonerate Mr Burns. “The investigation has been concluded and it’s clear there is no case to answer,” a source at CCHQ told The Mail on Sunday .

They said the man who was with Mr Burns at the hotel bar on that night had not made a complaint.

The insider described Mr Burns’s sacking and suspension as a Tory MP as a “massive overreaction” by Wendy Morton, the chief whip at the time. “She completely lost her nerve,” they added.

Tory MP Jacob Young, who was acting as a “spotter” for the whips’ office, apparently included the incident in his report of the evening.

But he told party officials that he did not believe it was serious enough to warrant formal action or a suspension.

Mr Burns said he was “not given any information about the complaint nor was I asked to provide any information” before he was punished.

An ally of his previously said that he had felt “imprisoned without any of the process of the police or a trial” by the investigation. The revelations raise the likelihood that the Bournemouth West MP will shortly have the party whip restored.

Mr Burns, who entered Parliament in 2010, previously served as Northern Ireland minister.

The allegation against him followed the Chris Pincher scandal that ultimately brought down Boris Johnson.

The former prime minister was accused of being too slow to act after his deputy chief whip was accused of drunkenly groping two men in a Westminster bar.

Mr Pincher denies any wrongdoing. CCHQ did not respond to requests for comment about the investigation into Mr Burns.

‘[I was] not given any information about the complaint nor was I asked to provide any information’