Tory MP sacked for ‘misconduct’ could lose a knighthood
THE Tory Minister sacked by Liz Truss over allegations of ‘serious misconduct’ was expected to be given a knighthood in Boris Johnson’s resignation honours list. The Mail on Sunday understands that Conor Burns, a staunch Johnson ally, was likely to be rewarded in the former PM’s honours handout. However, friends of the ex-Trade Minister – sacked on Friday over an alleged incident in a hotel bar at the Tory Party Conference – raised fears last night that ‘the gong’ would be a casualty of the misconduct claim. Whitehall sources said Mr Johnson’s list had not yet been submitted. They admitted that it was convention for a serving PM not to block a predecessor’s choice, but added: ‘That is convention only’. Such was Mr Burns’s loyalty to Mr Johnson that he endured ridicule in January after he defended the ex-Prime Minister’s surprise lockdown birthday party at No10 by saying that Mr Johnson had been ‘ambushed with a cake’.
Mr Burns lost his ministerial job and the Conservative whip after what one account called ‘lecherous behaviour’. The claims are being investigated by the Tory Party.
The BBC reported last night that witnesses had seen the MP touching a young man’s thigh in the early hours of last Tuesday. There were also claims that he was asked by an onlooker to stop.
Allies of Mr Burns – who denies any wrongdoing and is said to be ‘totally destroyed’ by the allegations – pointed out he was on heavy medication for a rib injury, which made the effect of alcohol worse.
Separately, his allies also hit back at accusations that he had made an inappropriate remark to Spice Girl Mel B, insisting he had never met her. Ms Brown made the suggestion in a cryptic tweet in reaction to the news that Mr Burns was being investigated by the party.
The tweet read: ‘Really?? Your shocked about this complaint??? Let me remind you what you said me in lift...’
A spokeswoman for the Spice Girl, who was at the conference in Birmingham to speak out against domestic violence, declined to say what the alleged remark was. The spokeswoman said she had ‘nothing further to add’ to her tweet.
Yesterday some Tory MPs privately suggested that the speed of Mr Burns’s dismissal could partly be punishment for signalling that his boss at the Trade Department – Kemi Badenoch – would make a better PM and making a jibe at Ms Truss’s love of Instagram.
Describing Mrs Badenoch as ‘the future of our party’, he said last week that she understood the need to ‘move beyond Instagram posts about free trade agreements’.
A Tory Party spokesman said last night: ‘We do not comment on ongoing investigations.’