LONDON — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government is facing another drunken scandal after the deputy chief whip resigned from his post and was subsequently suspended from the Conservative Party over a drunken incident in which he allegedly groped two men on an event.
Chris Pincher, whose role was to maintain discipline among Tory MPs, tendered his resignation to Johnson on Thursday.
“I drank too much” on Wednesday night, Pincher said in the letter. “I embarrassed myself and others, which is the last thing I want to do, and for that I apologize to you and those affected.”
But he said in his letter that he would remain as a Conservative lawmaker and continue to support Johnson from the backbenches in Parliament. This sparked anger from the opposition and even some Conservative MPs.
Johnson initially resisted calls to remove Pincher from the party before fending off pressure until Friday night after a formal complaint was made to an independent investigative body.
A spokeswoman for the Conservative Party said Johnson had agreed to have Pincher removed from office – meaning he cannot sit in parliament on the Tory benches.
The scandal added to the prime minister’s growing problems, with Britain’s main opposition Labor Party criticizing Johnson for not removing Pincher immediately.
“Boris Johnson has been dragged kicking and screaming to take any action,” said Labor deputy leader Angela Rayner. “He just can’t be trusted to do the right thing. This whole scandal is further evidence of his appalling judgment.
Johnson survived a no-confidence vote last month, triggered by MPs from his own party, but emerged weakened as more than 40% of Conservatives voted against him.
Much of the discontent with Johnson’s leadership has centered around investigations into boozy parties held in government buildings when the coronavirus lockdown banned group gatherings. In April, a Conservative MP resigned for viewing pornography on his phone in the House of Commons.
After returning from the Group of Seven and NATO summits this week, Johnson was trying to put those embarrassments behind him – and his party’s defeat in two snap parliamentary elections.
Conservative party leader Oliver Dowden quit last week after the Tories lost both seats in the by-election, saying the party “cannot carry on as usual”. But Johnson remained defiant amid calls for his own resignation and said he would not call an early election. The next general election is due to be called by 2024.
British tabloid The Sun reported that Pincher groped two men on Wednesday night at a private members’ club. London’s Metropolitan Police said it had not yet received any reports of an assault during the event.
It was the second time Pincher, 52, left a government job. In November 2017, he resigned as junior whip following complaints that he had made an unwanted pass at former Olympic rower and Conservative candidate Alex Storey.
But Prime Minister Theresa May brought him back to a government position in 2018, making him deputy chief whip. When Johnson took office in July 2019, Pincher was moved to the Foreign Office as a junior minister before returning to the whips’ office again.
The Labor Party said the Johnson government had questions to answer about why Pincher was put in the position in the first place.
“This latest episode shows just how far standards in public life have deteriorated under Boris Johnson’s watch,” said Rayner, the deputy leader of the Labor Party. “The Conservative Party is so mired in sloppiness and scandal that it is completely incapable of dealing with the challenges facing the British people.
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