The Daily Mail has “turned on Boris Johnson” after the prime minister became embroiled in yet another sleaze scandal, a former newspaper editor has claimed.
Johnson is facing demands to set out what he knew about allegations of inappropriate behaviour centring on Chris Pincher before appointing him to the Tory whips’ office.
The PM is alleged to have referred to the MP as “Pincher by name, pincher by nature” before making him deputy chief whip in February.
The MP for Tamworth in Staffordshire resigned from the role after being accused of drunkenly groping two men in a private members’ club in London.
It was the second time he resigned from the whips’ office after Conservative candidate Alex Story accused him of making an inappropriate advance in 2017.
The latest in a line of sexual misconduct allegations featuring Tory MPs was adding to Mr Johnson’s struggle to regain his authority after the partygate scandal.
There were suggestions his handling of Mr Pincher will embolden Conservative rebels’ attempts to change the rules of the 1922 Committee of backbenchers so they can hold another no confidence vote within the next year.
A stream of fresh allegations against Mr Pincher emerged over the weekend, as one Tory backbencher said claims about his behaviour had been “swirling around Westminster for years”.
Labour Party chair Anneliese Dodds has written to the Prime Minister demanding to know what Downing Street knew of the allegations about his ally before his second appointment as a whip.
“Only Boris Johnson could have looked at this guy’s record and thought ‘he deserves a promotion’,” she added in a statement.
“This Prime Minister is clearly happy to sweep sexual misconduct under the carpet in order to save his own skin.”
She also questioned why the Tory whip was not suspended, meaning the MP now sits as an independent, until Friday when the incident took place at the Carlton Club on Wednesday.
A Downing Street source has argued that Mr Johnson took the move after speaking to a Tory MP who was with one of the men allegedly groped by Mr Pincher.
“The account given was sufficiently disturbing to make the PM feel more troubled by all this,” the source told the PA news agency.
Dominic Cummings, the Prime Minister’s former chief aide turned critic-in-chief, said Mr Johnson referred to the MP “laughingly in No 10 as ‘Pincher by name, pincher by nature’ long before appointing him”.
David Yelland, the former editor of the Sun, posted the Daily Mail’s front page as evidence that the newspaper has turned against the PM.
“Make no mistake”, he said, “Paul Dacre has lost the internal argument with Jonathan Rothermere… the Mail titles have today suddenly turned on Johnson.”
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