The Conservative MP claims he was groped twice by Chris Pincher, who was suspended from the party on Friday following allegations of sexual misconduct.
Speaking exclusively to The Independent on condition of anonymity, the man claimed he was targeted twice by Mr Pincher, first in December 2021 and again last month.
One alleged assault took place at Parliament House in June when the man claimed Mr Pincher had deliberately touched his genitals through his clothes and refused to remove his hand when asked.
“He put his hand on my crotch and moved it around,” the deputy said.
“I shook my head and said no, I don’t want that, but he did [Mr Pincher] just smiled… he continued until I was able to walk away.’
During the first alleged incident, an evening in December 2021 near the Tory-affiliated Carlton Club, the man said he was repeatedly groped, with Mr Pincher’s hand placed “firmly” on his back his.
“It was really late and I’d been working stupid for days. I had been drinking with a number of colleagues from Westminster and it got very hazy. I remember suddenly feeling that I was being touched in a sexual way,” said the MP.
In both cases, the touching was prolonged and sexually intimate, the man claimed, and said he was limited in his ability to resist after drinking.
Mr Pincher strongly denies the allegations.
The MP’s account comes amid a raft of allegations about Mr Pincher’s behavior since his resignation as deputy chief whip on Friday morning, following allegations he groped two men while drunk on Wednesday night.
Speaking for the first time since he retired from government work, Mr Pincher announced he was seeking “professional medical support”.
He will cooperate fully with the investigation, he said, adding that the stress of the past few days “in addition to those of the past few months has led me to accept that I would benefit from professional medical attention.
“I am currently in the process of looking into this and hope to be able to return to my constituency duties as soon as possible.”
The Prime Minister suspended Mr Pincher from the party, but only after a call from a Tory MP who gave a “disturbing” account of his behaviour, a Downing Street source told the PA news agency. The events on June 29 are said to have taken place at the Carlton Club, a private members’ club in central London frequented by Tory MPs, aides and campaigners.
In May, the news website Politico reported that a lawmaker, later revealed to be Mr. Pincher, had been assigned a warden to try to keep him from drinking too much and getting into trouble.
In his resignation letter to the prime minister, Mr Pincher said he was stepping down from the role because he had “drank too much” and had “embarrassed” himself and others.
Earlier today he said he was “truly sorry”, adding that he was seeking medical attention and would cooperate fully with a parliamentary inquiry into the allegations.
The MP who made the latest allegations said he thought now was the right time to speak about Mr Pincher’s alleged behavior because there could be other victims and because there is a wider problem of people turning a blind eye to the abuse of younger men by older men” in Parliament.
He said: “We are rightly more vigilant about the abuse of young women working in Westminster. We begin to learn to notice the signs of older men targeting them. We are blind, even more uncomfortably, to the idea that men target men.
“I think people are afraid that calling out abuse will be perceived as homophobic,” he added.
The MP said he had previously mentioned being groped by Mr Pincher to a fellow Tory MP, but it was “overlooked” because “he’s a known quantity”.
He said he did not lodge a complaint through the Independent Complaints and Grievance Scheme (ICGS) or the police to avoid the harm of personal exposure.
The MP added that Mr Pincher was a “disgrace to the party” and this was “unacceptable to him”. [Mr Pincher] to remain” in parliament.
A formal complaint about Mr Pincher’s conduct was lodged on Friday with the ICGS, which is investigating his conduct.
In what appears to be a separate allegation, a young Conservative campaigner told The Times that Mr Pincher put his hand on his knee and told him he would “go far in the party” at an event during the conference The Conservative Party in Manchester.
Lawyers for Mr. Pincher said he vehemently denies the allegation, according to The Times report.
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