PM ‘didn’t know specific claims’ about Chris Pincher before giving him whips job

Credit :Sunday Morning with Sophie Raworth - BBC One / Nato Boris Johnson did not know “specific claims” about Chris Pincher before appointing him deputy chief whip, despite numerous sexual misconduct allegations, a Cabinet minister has said. Therese Coffey battled to defend the Prime Minister on Sunday over his decision to give the MP - who has now been stripped of the Conservative whip - a key ministerial role. Former No 10 adviser Dominic Cummings alleged that Mr Johnson had referred to the MP as “Pincher by name, pincher by nature” long before appointing him in February. The MP for Tamworth quit as Tory deputy chief whip after he was accused of drunkenly groping two men at a private members’ club in London this week. The Prime Minister only bowed to pressure to remove the whip from his ally after an official investigation was launched. Mr Pincher had previously quit the whips’ office in 2017 after a complaint that he had made an unwanted pass at former Olympic rower and Conservative candidate Alex Story.