London –
The British government is grappling with another alcohol-related scandal after the deputy whip chief resigned following a drunken incident and Prime Minister Boris Johnson received calls on Friday to oust the Conservative Party lawmaker.
Chris Pincher, whose role was to maintain discipline among Conservative members of Parliament, submitted a letter of resignation to Johnson on Thursday.
“I drank too much” on Wednesday night, Pincher said in the letter. “I have embarrassed myself and other people, which is the last thing I want to do, and for that I apologize to you and those involved.”
But he said he would remain a Conservative lawmaker and continue to support Johnson from the back benches of Parliament.
Johnson did not respond when reporters yelled questions at him outside his 10 Downing St. residence about whether he would suspend Pincher from the party. A spokesman for Johnson’s office later said the prime minister believed Pincher’s behavior was “unacceptable”.
Pincher’s resignation as deputy whip chief added to the prime minister’s woes.
Johnson survived a no-confidence motion last month by lawmakers from his own party, but emerged weakened as more than 40 percent of Conservatives voted against him.
Most of the discontent with Johnson’s leadership has focused on investigations into booze parties held in government buildings when coronavirus lockdowns banned group gatherings. A Conservative lawmaker also resigned for viewing pornography on his phone in the House of Commons.
After returning from the Group of Seven and NATO summits this week, Johnson was looking to put those embarrassments behind him, and his party’s defeat in two special parliamentary elections.
Conservative Party chairman Oliver Dowden resigned last week as the Conservatives lost two seats in the by-election, saying the party “cannot continue with business as usual”. But Johnson has remained defiant amid calls for his own resignation and said he would not call a snap election. The next general elections must be called for 2024.
British tabloid The Sun reported that Pincher groped two men Wednesday night at a private club. London’s Metropolitan Police force said it had not yet received any reports of an assault at the event.
It was the second time Pincher, 52, had left a government whip job. In November 2017, he resigned as junior whip after a complaint that he made an unwanted pass to former Olympic rower and Conservative candidate Alex Story.
But Prime Minister Theresa May returned him to a government post in 2018 by appointing him chief deputy chief. When Johnson took office in July 2019, Pincher was transferred to the Foreign Office as a junior minister before returning to the office of the whips again.
Britain’s opposition Labor Party said the Johnson government had questions to answer about why Pincher took office in the first place.
“This latest episode shows the extent to which standards in public life have been degraded during Boris Johnson’s tenure,” Labor Vice-President Angela Rayner said. “The Conservative Party is so mired in sleaze and scandal that it is totally incapable of addressing the challenges facing the British people.”