Boris Johnson was briefed “in person” about an allegation of inappropriate behaviour against disgraced MP Chris Pincher in 2019, a former senior civil servant has claimed.
Since the deputy chief whip resigned his post last week after allegations of groping two men, Number 10 has said the prime minister was not aware of specific allegations.
But Lord McDonald, who was the permanent secretary in the Foreign Office between 2015 and 2020, has written to Parliament’s standards commissioner saying Downing Street had made “inaccurate claims”.
Tweeting the letter, he said: “This morning I have written to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards – because No 10 keep changing their story and are still not telling the truth.”
In the letter, he wrote: “The original No 10 line is not true and the modification is still not accurate. 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. To characterise the allegations as ‘unsubstantiated’ is therefore wrong.”
Shortly before the letter was published, Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab told Sky News’ Kay Burley that he knew about the allegation when he was foreign secretary in 2019.
He said he had “made it clear in no uncertain terms” to Mr Pincher that the behaviour “must never be repeated”, and he referred it to both the civil service and Cabinet Office for investigation.
But Mr Raab said the inquiries did not “trigger disciplinary action”, and he had only told the PM about the incident “in recent days”.
On Monday, Sky News revealed the PM’s wife, Carrie Johnson, also questioned Mr Pincher’s suitability as a government whip as far back as 2017.
While communications director at CCHQ in 2017, Mrs Johnson (then Ms Symonds) questioned how Mr Pincher had ever ended up in the whips’ office in correspondence seen by Sky News.