Chris Pincher should be suspended from Commons for 8 weeks over ‘grave’ sexual misconduct, report says
Chris Pincher, the former Tory deputy chief whip, should be suspended from the Commons for eight weeks, the Commons standards committee has said in a report this morning.
This would allow a petition to be arranged for a recall byelelection in his Tamworth constituency, where he had a majority of 19,634 over Labour at the last election.
The standards committee investigated a complaint that Pincher groped two men in the Carlton Club last summer when he was drunk. It concluded that this was a breach of the provision in the code of conduct for MPs saying they should not do anything that would “significant damage to the reputation and integrity of the House of Commons as a whole, or of its Members generally”.
This is what the report says about Pincher’s conduct.
Firstly, we agree that Mr Pincher’s conduct caused significant damage to the reputation of the government and to the prime minister who appointed him. But this was also an egregious case of sexual misconduct in the presence of several other MPs, two of whom thought the events represented so significant a breach of acceptable behaviour that they raised the matter immediately with the chief whip and provided witness statements. It is therefore self-evident that Mr Pincher’s conduct, which led to extensive public commentary in the media regarding the reputation and integrity of all MPs, had a significant negative impact on the reputation of the whole House.
Secondly, Mr Pincher’s conduct was deeply inappropriate and had a significant impact on the individuals involved. Witness 3 states that “the incident has significantly impacted me. I have become increasingly anxious as a result of the incident”. Witness 2 also stated “I could see the person touched by Mr Pincher was frozen and I think he was shocked by what happened”.
A third aspect of Mr Pincher’s conduct is especially grave, however. Sexual misconduct of this nature, by a serving senior member of the house in such a situation, also involves an abuse of power. Mr Pincher was the government deputy chief whip at the time and therefore in a position of significant power and authority. We note that Witness 3 states that he was “fearful” about whether the incident would affect his “job and future career plans”. This point was also made by Witness 1 who stated, “I was conscious that this was an unusual situation as although there was a clear right and wrong, there was also a hierarchy in place, and I knew that Mr Pincher was well connected”. Whether Mr Pincher intended to abuse that position of power is immaterial. Objectively, he did.
Fourthly, the [parliamentary commissioner for standards] states that Mr Pincher’s conduct would cause damage to the reputation of members generally, because it “risks advancing a misplaced public perception that members of parliament do not have to abide by normal standards of behaviour and can commit acts of misconduct with impunity”. We agree.
Mr Pincher’s conduct was completely inappropriate, profoundly damaging to the individuals concerned, and represented an abuse of power. We therefore agree with the commissioner that Mr Pincher’s conduct on 29 and 30 June 2022 breached paragraph 17 of the 2019 code.
Key events
How Boris Johnson dismissed interview question about whether he should have handled Pincher affair differently
The Commons standards privileges committee takes Chris Pincher’s conduct at the Carlton Club last summer a lot more seriously than Boris Johnson did. At the time No 10 falsely claimed that Johnson was not aware of previous allegations about Pincher when he appointed him deputy chief whip. His lack of honesty over this, and his attempt to downplay the seriousness of the offence, was the final straw from many Conservative MPs, and within days Johnson was announcing his resignation.
Johnson does not seem to have changed his view. The journalist Julia Macfarlane asked him in a recent interview if he regretted how he handled this affair and, as she told the News Agents podcast yesterday, he just pretended to fall asleep in response.
There is a clip here (although you may need a Twitter account to view it). It shows Johnson rolling his eyes derisively when the question was put to him, and then making a snoring noise.
This is what Macfarlane told the podcast about what the clip shows.
That’s when I said, ‘For example, should you have behaved differently when your colleagues told you they were uneasy about how the whole Chris Pincher affair was going down?’ As I was asking that, he sort of leant back a little. He sort of rolled his eyes and looked over at Richard [Dearlove], who was the other man in the interview and then he started to snore when I brought up that story, which is about sexual assault allegations.
Labour says Chris Pincher should resign as MP
Labour says Chris Pincher should resign as an MP. In a statement following the release of the standards committee’s report, Angela Rayner, the deputy leader, said:
Chris Pincher’s actions are shocking. But what’s even worse, is the way the Conservative party protected him, even promoting him despite a previous investigation into his conduct.
Chris Pincher should now do the decent thing and resign as an MP. The people of Tamworth and the surrounding villages deserve more from their parliamentary representative.
Chris Pincher should be suspended from Commons for 8 weeks over ‘grave’ sexual misconduct, report says
Chris Pincher, the former Tory deputy chief whip, should be suspended from the Commons for eight weeks, the Commons standards committee has said in a report this morning.
This would allow a petition to be arranged for a recall byelelection in his Tamworth constituency, where he had a majority of 19,634 over Labour at the last election.
The standards committee investigated a complaint that Pincher groped two men in the Carlton Club last summer when he was drunk. It concluded that this was a breach of the provision in the code of conduct for MPs saying they should not do anything that would “significant damage to the reputation and integrity of the House of Commons as a whole, or of its Members generally”.
This is what the report says about Pincher’s conduct.
Firstly, we agree that Mr Pincher’s conduct caused significant damage to the reputation of the government and to the prime minister who appointed him. But this was also an egregious case of sexual misconduct in the presence of several other MPs, two of whom thought the events represented so significant a breach of acceptable behaviour that they raised the matter immediately with the chief whip and provided witness statements. It is therefore self-evident that Mr Pincher’s conduct, which led to extensive public commentary in the media regarding the reputation and integrity of all MPs, had a significant negative impact on the reputation of the whole House.
Secondly, Mr Pincher’s conduct was deeply inappropriate and had a significant impact on the individuals involved. Witness 3 states that “the incident has significantly impacted me. I have become increasingly anxious as a result of the incident”. Witness 2 also stated “I could see the person touched by Mr Pincher was frozen and I think he was shocked by what happened”.
A third aspect of Mr Pincher’s conduct is especially grave, however. Sexual misconduct of this nature, by a serving senior member of the house in such a situation, also involves an abuse of power. Mr Pincher was the government deputy chief whip at the time and therefore in a position of significant power and authority. We note that Witness 3 states that he was “fearful” about whether the incident would affect his “job and future career plans”. This point was also made by Witness 1 who stated, “I was conscious that this was an unusual situation as although there was a clear right and wrong, there was also a hierarchy in place, and I knew that Mr Pincher was well connected”. Whether Mr Pincher intended to abuse that position of power is immaterial. Objectively, he did.
Fourthly, the [parliamentary commissioner for standards] states that Mr Pincher’s conduct would cause damage to the reputation of members generally, because it “risks advancing a misplaced public perception that members of parliament do not have to abide by normal standards of behaviour and can commit acts of misconduct with impunity”. We agree.
Mr Pincher’s conduct was completely inappropriate, profoundly damaging to the individuals concerned, and represented an abuse of power. We therefore agree with the commissioner that Mr Pincher’s conduct on 29 and 30 June 2022 breached paragraph 17 of the 2019 code.
Good morning. Keir Starmer has been giving speeches fleshing out the details of the five missions for Labour he announced in February, and today he is talking about the fifth and final one – “to break down the barriers to opportunity at every stage, for every child”. As he explains in an article in the Sun, he wants to break down the “class ceiling” which he says holds back people who were not born privileged. He says:
This is personal to me.
There was nothing about my working-class upbringing that suggested I would end up as the country’s most senior prosecutor or the leader of the Labour Party.
My parents – Mum a nurse, Dad a toolmaker – instilled in me the belief that hard work and imagination would be rewarded in Britain.
That, even in tough times, things would get better.
As a country, we badly need to restore the sense that a better future lies ahead of us.
Here is Peter Walker’s preview of the speech.
Starmer’s team had a busy writing day yesterday because he, or they, have also written an article for the Times saying that, as part of his plans to reform education, he wants to put more emphasis on teaching pupils to speak and argue. He explains:
Talk is the currency of politics. It is our way of negotiating, deliberating, persuading and coming to decisions. Talk is also the currency of learning – how we develop and shape our ideas, deepen our thinking, explore subject matter and share our thoughts and feelings.
That’s why I want speaking skills, sometimes called “oracy”, to play an important part in Labour’s plans for a reformed school curriculum.
Employers have told me that speaking skills are as important as reading and writing. The ability to speak well and express yourself should be something every child is entitled to and should master.
But the curriculum doesn’t allow us to provide this. This is shortsighted. An inability to articulate your thoughts fluently is a key barrier to getting on and thriving in life …
Oracy is a skill that can and must be taught. Yes, it’s in part about good public speaking and debating skills, but in reality, it is about much more: how to teach young people to make a cogent argument and choose language with discernment; how to read an audience and forge meaningful social connections; how to use our expressions and body language to convey meaning.
It is often that Labour and the Conservatives are now broadly similar in terms of policies. But in education we now have at least one clear dividing line; under Rishi Sunak, pupils will get more maths, under Starmer, they will get more debating.
Starmer has been giving interviews this morning. I will post details from them shortly.
Here is the agenda for the day.
9am: The Common standards committee is expected to publish a report about the Tory MP Chris Pincher.
10.25am: Keir Starmer gives a speech on Labour’s fifth mission, “to break down the barriers to opportunity at every stage, for every child”.
After 10.30am: Penny Mordaunt, leader of the Commons, announces next week’s Commons business to MPs. She is expected to give details of how the government will respond to the defeats in the Lords on the illegal migration bill.
2.30pm: The high court gives its judgment on the government’s legal challenge against the Covid inquiry’s demand to see unredacted WhatsApp messages that the government says are irrelevant to coronavirus.
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