Boris Johnson was conscious of issues concerning the conduct of Chris Pincher when he made him deputy chief whip, Downing Road has confirmed.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman mentioned the whereas he knew of claims which had been both been resolved or had not resulted in a proper grievance, it was not thought of acceptable to dam his appointment.
Mr Pincher plunged the Authorities into a brand new disaster when he dramatically stop final week over allegations he groped two males at a Conservative non-public members’ membership.
He had beforehand resigned from the whips workplace in 2017 over claims he made undesirable advances to a younger activist, however was later reinstated after being cleared by an inner Conservative Social gathering investigation.
Over the weekend, nonetheless, particulars emerged within the press of additional claims about alleged sexual advances to males – together with two fellow Conservative MPs – over a interval of years.
Mr Pincher has denied the allegations.
However Mr Johnson’s spokesman mentioned the Prime Minister had been conscious of the “hypothesis” there had been about Mr Pincher over a variety of years when he made him deputy chief whip final February.
“I can’t get into an excessive amount of element however he did take recommendation on a few of the allegations that had been made, however there was no formal grievance at the moment and it was deemed not acceptable to cease an appointment merely due to unsubstantiated allegations,” the spokesman mentioned.
“He was conscious that there had been experiences and hypothesis through the years on the subject of this particular person, however there have been no particular allegation. There was no formal grievance at the moment.”
The spokesman declined to touch upon a declare by Mr Johnson’s former chief adviser Dominic Cummings that the Prime Minister had referred to the MP as “Pincher by identify, pincher by nature”.
“I’m merely not going to touch upon content material of what was or wasn’t mentioned in non-public conversations,” the spokesman mentioned.
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