Boris Johnson is facing a backlash over the promotion of his ally Chris Pincher, as a group of Conservative MPs accused the prime minister of “failure to act on warnings” about sexual misconduct by his MPs.
As fresh allegations emerged about Pincher, who resigned as deputy chief whip over allegations he groped two men at a London club, No 10 continued to insist Johnson was unaware of any “specific” warnings until last week.
But a source in the Whips’ office admitted on Sunday that a “matter” relating to Pincher had in fact been reported to them during the February reshuffle. The source previously denied receiving any complaints or warnings — official or unofficial — about his behavior.
Johnson is likely to face questions in parliament this week about what he knew about the allegations about Pincher after five more reports emerged over the weekend of alleged misconduct, including groping Tory MPs. Pincher denies all the allegations against him.
The warning to the whips’ office in February is believed to have come from a Tory MP who was the subject of an unwanted pass by Pincher. A second deputy told the Guardian they raised allegations of sexual misconduct by Pincher with their whip, but without making a formal complaint because they were not personally victimized.
He said he told the whips’ office in February that Pincher should not be on the job as he could not be trusted with young male staff. “I told a whip what I thought of Pincher and that he had a terrible reputation among junior staff and MPs who had not left. That still stands.”
The deputy said they haven’t made a specific charge because that would lead to a full investigation and he can’t guarantee the accusers will come forward.
“I would not want to do this without the victim’s express permission. But I wanted them to know there were claims.”
A third MP said they had warned senior party figures that “Pincher should not be anywhere near the whips’ office”, let alone the deputy role, which gives responsibility for MPs’ welfare as well as discipline.
There were also reports that Steve Barkley, Johnson’s chief of staff, tried to block Pincher’s appointment and requested an investigation by the cabinet’s ethics and integrity team.
A group of parliamentary aides called Conservative Staffers for Change, which previously wrote to Johnson with their general concern about sexual misconduct at Westminster, said on Sunday that the stories now coming out about Pincher were “no surprise”.
“His behavior was an open secret at Westminster and it is disappointing that this was not addressed sooner,” they said.
“After raising concerns about sexual misconduct with the chief whip, we were disappointed not only by how long it took to remove the whip from Pincher, but also by the continued lack of clarity about the Prime Minister’s knowledge of his conduct.
“We wrote the letter to the Prime Minister expressing concern about illegal sexual conduct [by those in power abusing their positions] in May but still haven’t heard back. It’s about more than the culture at Westminster, it’s about the Prime Minister’s failure to act on warnings of serious misconduct from those in government.
The two parliamentary staff representing the group are due to meet Lindsey Hoyle, the chair, this week to “raise their concerns about Parliament as a workplace and how our employment structures can be reformed”.
Conservative MPs are also voicing their concerns with their whips about why the party refuses to take any allegations about Pincher seriously without a formal complaint from an alleged victim of the Independent Complaints and Grievances Scheme.
Anne Milton, the former deputy chief whip of the Conservative Party, told the Guardian: “I feel very angry that in this day and age this kind of behavior still goes on… Victims will come forward if they trust the process and the individual , to whom they will cope . This person should not be in the whips office, just a senior person with responsibility. And absolutely witnesses should be able to file complaints. It’s nonsense to have a system without it.”
Senior Conservatives remain adamant Tory MP Craig Whittaker stood down as a whip in February over undisclosed harassment allegations against Pincher, despite Whittaker’s denials.
Whittaker, the MP for Calder Valley, issued a statement to the Halifax Courier on Sunday, saying he was stepping down as whip for health reasons and not because he opposed Pincher’s appointment, as was claimed on Saturday.
But a senior Tory source said: “There is no doubt that Craig was concerned about Pincher taking on a key role that gave him power over younger MPs, he told people that was the reason. “Are we really to believe that this was not passed on to the Prime Minister? It stretches the limits of trust.”
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Another junior Tory peer said: “There’s been constant rumors about Chris and how he behaves when he’s drunk, but there’s constant rumors about most people in Parliament and if you believed them all we’d have no MPs.
“So I was wary of him, but I didn’t fully believe those rumors because I hadn’t met anyone who said they’d actually seen him grope someone or been groped. Now of course I’m thinking “should I have said something before?”. But the reality is that it takes a complaint for other complaints to come out.
Pincher was suspended, but Johnson initially opposed the move until a formal complaint was made against him by a victim to the Independent Complaints and Grievances Scheme.
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