UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson was at the centre of yet another ethics scandal on Tuesday after his office was accused of "not telling the truth" about an MP accused of sexual misconduct.
Former senior civil servant Simon McDonald said Mr Johnson had known of concrete allegations against Chris Pincher before appointing him to a government role, contradicting Downing Street's earlier claims about the scandal.
The highly unusual intervention by Mr McDonald, a former head of the British diplomatic service, piles further pressure on Mr Johnson after a string of scandals left him fighting for his political career.
In yet another change of tone, a Downing Street spokesman admitted on Tuesday that Mr Johnson had been briefed about Mr Pincher's behaviour following complaints at the Foreign Office in 2019, but suggested he had forgotten.
Mr Pincher resigned as a government whip on Thursday after separate claims that he made a pass at two men while drunk.
"A prime minister has a myriad array of urgent and pressing responsibilities... he may be told literally hundreds of things in any one day," said Cabinet Office minister Michael Ellis, defending the government in the House of Commons.
Mr Johnson's office previously said he had only known of vague and unsubstantiated allegations against Mr Pincher - leading to allegations of a cover-up from the opposition Labour Party.
“It’s clear the PM knew about the seriousness of these complaints but promoted this man anyway,” said Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner.
Mr McDonald dramatically went public with a letter to the parliamentary standards commissioner just as Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab was defending Mr Johnson on morning television. Told of Mr McDonald's account of the prime minister being briefed, Mr Raab said: “That's news to me.”
The scandal gives Mr Johnson yet another ethics headache after months of damaging revelations and the damning Sue Gray report into rule-breaking at his office during lockdown left him fighting for his political career.
He narrowly survived a confidence vote last month after many of his own MPs turned on him, but his attempt to reboot his premiership by installing a new team at 10 Downing Street has failed to end the whiff of scandal around his government.
Two stinging defeats in parliamentary by-elections in England, both prompted by Conservative MPs resigning in disgrace, further damaged Mr Johnson's authority.
“Number 10 keep changing their story and are still not telling the truth,” said Mr McDonald in his letter. “Mr Johnson was briefed in person about the initiation and outcome of the investigation.
“There was a formal complaint. Allegations were resolved only in the sense that the investigation was completed. Mr Pincher was not exonerated.”
After allegations emerged against Mr Pincher:
- A Downing Street spokesman initially said on Friday that Mr Johnson was not aware of specific allegations, and that “in the absence of formal complaints” it would not have been appropriate to block Mr Pincher's appointment in February;
- Dominic Cummings, a former Johnson aide turned bitter critic of his government, claimed Mr Johnson had once referred to the MP as “Pincher by name, pincher by nature”, suggesting he knew of Mr Pincher's alleged behaviour;
- An amended Downing Street line on Monday acknowledged that Mr Johnson had known of “allegations that were either resolved or did not progress to a formal complaint”, and had been aware of speculation about Mr Pincher;
- But Mr McDonald took objection to the word “resolved” and said: “The original Number 10 line is not true and the modification is still not accurate.”
Mr McDonald said the 2019 allegations against Mr Pincher, then a junior minister at the Foreign Office, were similar in substance to the groping claims that emerged on Thursday.
He said Mr Pincher had apologised after the complaint by a group of officials was upheld, and promised “not to repeat the inappropriate behaviour”.
The Cabinet Office was briefed about that incident and a senior official subsequently briefed Mr Johnson about what happened, Mr McDonald told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
He said he had weighed in because Downing Street had failed to get the story right and because he did not believe in anonymously briefing his side of the story to journalists.
Further allegations of a similar nature have since been made against Mr Pincher, some dating back more than a decade.
Mr Pincher denied the allegations, but admitted drinking too much at a London private member's club on Wednesday, and said on Saturday that he was seeking professional medical support.
Mr Pincher, who resigned from the deputy chief whip role he was appointed to in February — in which he was meant to enforce party discipline — has also been suspended as a Conservative MP.
The intervention by Mr McDonald came only minutes after Mr Raab, sent out to defend the government on morning television, had claimed that Mr Johnson was not directly briefed.
Mr Raab, who was Foreign Secretary in 2019, said he had warned Mr Pincher about his conduct but that the claims did not “trip the wire into disciplinary action”.
Responding to Mr McDonald's claim, he said a Cabinet Office propriety and ethics team had raised no objections when Mr Pincher returned to government in February.
Boris Johnson through the years - in pictures
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Boris Johnson has had an eventful time during his life in politics and journalism. Here, 'The National' looks back at his life in pictures. Getty Images -
Mr Johnson attends the coronation ceremony of Britain's King Charles III at Westminster Abbey in May. Getty Images -
Mr Johnson leaves his home to attend a televised evidence session in March in front of the Commons Privileges Committee. Getty Images -
Mr Johnson listening to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy address parliamentarians in Westminster Hall in February. Getty Images -
Mr Johnson and Carrie Johnson arrive at Westminster Abbey for the state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II in September 2022. Getty Images -
Mr Johnson he announces his resignation as prime minister outside 10 Downing Street in July 2022. Getty Images -
Mr Johnson at a press conference in response to the publication of the Sue Gray report into Partygate at Downing Street in May 2022. Getty Images -
Mr Johnson reads the long-awaited report by senior civil servant Sue Gray into the Downing Street party scandal, in his Downing Street office in May 2022. Photo: Downing Street -
Mr Johnson and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in central Kyiv in April 2022. The British prime minister paid an unannounced visit to Kyiv in a show of solidarity with Ukraine. AFP -
Mr Johnson watches an early morning police raid on a home in Liverpool as part of an operation to thwart drug dealing, in December, 2021. Getty Images -
The prime minister battles with his umbrella while with Prince Charles at The National Memorial Arboretum in July 2021, in Stafford, England. Getty Images -
Mr Johnson and his wife before the Uefa European Championship final between Italy and England at Wembley Stadium, London, in July last year. Getty Images -
The British prime minister with US President Joe Biden, European Council President Charles Michel, former Japanese prime minister Yoshihide Suga and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi during the G7 Summit in Cornwall, in June 2021. Getty Images -
Mr Johnson with his wife Carrie in the garden of 10 Downing Street after their wedding at Westminster Cathedral, in May last year. Getty Images -
Boris Johnson visits Hartlepool after Conservative Party candidate Jill Mortimer won a parliamentary by-election in May, 2021. Getty Images -
The prime minister after receiving the first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine at St Thomas' Hospital in London in March, 2021. Getty Images -
Boris Johnson after signing a Brexit trade deal with the EU in December 2020. Getty Images -
Mr Johnson examines a vial of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 candidate vaccine, at a pharmaceutical manufacturing facility in Wrexham, Wales, in November 2020. Getty -
Mr Johnson demonstrating the two-metre distancing rule during his visit to St Joseph's Catholic Primary School in Upminster, East London, in August 2020. PA -
In this photo, published alongside the Sue Gray report into the Partygate affair, Mr Johnson is seen at a gathering in the Cabinet Room in 10 Downing Street on his birthday in June, 2020. Getty Images -
Mr Johnson and former chancellor Rishi Sunak use hand sanitiser during a visit to the Pizza Pilgrims restaurant in June 2020, in east London, to see how they are getting their business ready to reopen as coronavirus lockdown restrictions were lifted in England. PA -
Mr Johnson and his fiancee Carrie Symonds applaud key workers outside 10 Downing Street in May 2020, during the coronavirus pandemic. Getty Images -
Mr Johnson in the Cabinet Room observing a minute's silence in April 2020 in a tribute to the health staff and key workers who died during the coronavirus outbreak. PA -
Boris Johnson appears on monitors for a meeting in March 2020. The prime minister chaired morning meetings on the coronavirus remotely from Number 11 Downing Street, while self-isolating after testing positive for the virus. Reuters -
Members of a family listen as BMr ris Johnson makes a televised address to the nation from 10 Downing Street in March 2020, where he outlined the latest instructions to stay at home to help contain the Covid-19 outbreak. AFP -
Mr Johnson speaks to British troops stationed in Estonia during a one-day visit to the Baltic country in December 2019. Getty Images -
Mr Johnson and Carrie Symonds enter Downing Street as the Conservatives celebrate a sweeping election victory in December 2019. Getty -
Boris Johnson is greeted by staff at 10 Downing Street after meeting Queen Elizabeth II and accepting her invitation to form a new government in December 2012. PA -
Former US president Donald Trump and Mr Johnson arrive for a bilateral meeting during the G7 summit in August 2019 in Biarritz, France. Getty -
The queen welcomes Mr Johnson as the newly elected leader of the Conservative Party, during an audience in July 2019. Getty Images -
Mr Johnson, then Britain's foreign secretary, stands in front of St Basil's Cathedral during a visit to Moscow's Red Square in December 2017. Getty -
Mr Johnson collides with a child during a Street Rugby tournament in Tokyo in 2015, held to mark Japan hosting the 2019 Rugby World Cup -
As mayor of London Mr Johnson competes in a tug-of-war in October 2015. Getty Images -
The Olympic Flag is passed from Mr Johnson to IOC President Jacques Rogge during the closing ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games. Getty Images -
Mayor of London Boris Johnson with Prime Minister David Cameron during the lighting of the Paralympic Cauldron in Trafalgar Square, in August 2012. PA -
Boris Johnson gets stuck on a zip-line during a BT London Live event in Victoria Park in August 2012. Getty -
Mr Johnson and Lord Sebastian Coe cheer as a giant set of Olympic rings is displayed from Tower Bridge in June 2012, Getty Images -
Mr Johnson gestures attends a Harry Potter studio tour of Diagon Alley, at the Warner Brother Studios, London, in December 2011. AP Photo -
Mr Johnson at the launch of London's first cycle hire scheme in July 2010. Getty Images -
Mr Johnson with artists' impressions of the design for London's new Routemaster bus in May 2010. Getty Images -
The candidates to be mayor of London; Labour's Ken Livingstone, Conservative Boris Johnson and Liberal Democrat Brian Paddick, being questioned on BBC's 'Newsnight' programme in April 2008. Getty Images -
Boris Johnson on the North Pier in Blackpool during the Conservative Party conference there in October 2005. Getty Images -
Mr Johnson at his desk in 2000 while he was a journalist for 'The Telegraph'. Getty Images -
Mr Johnson when he was president of the Oxford Union society speaking to the Greek minister for culture Melina Mercouri when she addressed the union. Reuters -
Boris Johnson in September 1979, at Eton School. Shutterstock
