Pressure is mounting on the Conservative party to withdraw the whip from Chris Pincher after allegations he groped two men on a drunken night out.
Labour’s Yvette Cooper said that removing the whip from the former Conservative deputy whip needed to be the “first step that takes place” but did not call for him to resign as an MP.
Pincher, 52, resigned as deputy chief whip on Thursday night after admitting he had “embarrassed myself and other people” after reports that he drunkenly groped two men at the Carlton Club in Piccadilly, London, on Wednesday.
Cooper told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “We need to know the full truth about what has happened and what the allegations are. But I think that’s [removing the whip] the first step that needs to take place. And I think the idea that the Conservatives can try and simply dismiss this is just unacceptable.
“They have to show they take this kind of thing more seriously. Time and again Boris Johnson just doesn’t. That is not good enough. This is about standards in public life.”
Simon Hart, the secretary of state for Wales, said his first reaction to the news of the allegations was one of “sadness and frustration” and “here we are again”. He said it was up to the chief whip to make the decision to remove the whip from Pincher, meaning he would no longer be siting as a Conservative MP.
“This makes me very sad. It makes me sad for everybody who’s been involved in these things,” Hart said. “It’s clearly something which has gone terribly wrong. There is a process; I think it’s important that the process is followed.
“I think it is entirely right that the chief whip and others take a view today about what is the appropriate course of action. Of course, if there are those who are victims of this or who wish to raise a complaint, they can do so.”
When pushed on whether he thought Pincher should have the whip removed, Hart, said: “It is not my decision. I know what I’d like to see happen – you can probably tell what that is just from the way I am trying to avoid answering your question.”
He added: “Let’s let today play out, let the chief whip do his duty today, and then I think we might be having a very different conversation as the day goes on.”
Hart told the Today programme: “It is absolutely beholden on us to make sure that we do these things properly from the point of view of the victims.”
However, he could not confirm if there would be a formal investigation into the allegations.
Asked whether he hoped the issue would get swept under the rug, Hart told Sky: “Absolutely not. This is not the first time, I fear it possibly won’t be the last. This happens in workplaces from time to time.”
The MP for Tamworth had previously stood down from the whips’ office in 2017 after allegations he made an unwanted pass at the former Olympic rower and Conservative activist Alex Story.
Source: Guardian
