Chris Pincher appealing against eight-week Commons suspension
Former Tory MP Chris Pincher is appealing an eight-week suspension – which was recommended after an investigation into groping claims made against him.
A letter from the Independent Expert Panel – which handles appeals against such rulings – confirmed his decision on Thursday night, hours before the deadline.
The allegations surfaced last summer when the then deputy chief whip was accused of assaulting two guests at the exclusive Carlton Club in London.
He resigned from his post and was later suspended by the Conservative Party.
The parliamentary watchdog launched its investigation in October, looking into whether Mr Pincher’s actions caused “significant damage to the reputation of the House” – a breach of the members’ code.
The Commons Standards Committee published its conclusions earlier this month, saying the MP’s conduct had been “completely inappropriate, profoundly damaging to the individuals concerned, and represented an abuse of power”, and that his actions would “significantly impact public perception of the House and its members”.
It recommended the eight-week suspension, which would likely trigger a by-election in his constituency of Tamworth, and Mr Pincher – who now sits as an independent – had until Thursday to launch an appeal.
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Last month, Mr Pincher resigned his post after he was accused of groping two men in a private members’ club.
In his response to the investigation, Mr Pincher said: “I apologise sincerely again for my behaviour at the Carlton Club last year, as I did the day I resigned from the government.
“I have sought professional medical help, which is ongoing and has been beneficial to me, for which I am grateful.
“I am truly grateful for the kindness that I have received from my constituents, family and friends.”
Watchdog’s findings
The watchdog gave details of the allegations against the MP in its report, with a House of Lords employee saying Mr Pincher had stroked his neck and squeezed his bottom.
The second complainant – a civil service – said he touched his bottom before moving his hand to touch and squeeze his testicles.
Mr Pincher told the investigation that he did not remember the events that took place that evening, but apologised to all parties involved.
However, he claimed he had returned to the club after the event in a personal capacity and denied his behaviour had caused significant damage to the reputation of the House and its members.
And he also claimed there were “inconsistencies, anomalies and gaps in the evidence” which he argued “don’t present a complete picture”.
But the standards commissioner, Daniel Greenberg, called his behaviour “shocking” and “deeply inappropriate”, and concluded Mr Pincher had breached paragraph 17 of the 2019 Code of Conduct for Members.
The Commons will have to agree any suspension before it takes place, but that will now be delayed while the appeal is heard and while MPs are on their summer recess.
The deal was announced in response to the White House’s recent policy strategy to make the United States the AI capital of the world.
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Safeguarding minister Jess Phillips has told Sky News that councils that believe they don’t have a problem with grooming gangs are “idiots” – as she denied Elon Musk influenced the decision to have a national inquiry on the subject.
The minister said: “I don’t follow Elon Musk’s advice on anything although maybe I too would like to go to Mars.
“Before anyone even knew Elon Musk’s name, I was working with the victims of these crimes.”
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Elon Musk. Pic: Reuters
Mr Musk had called Ms Phillips a “rape genocide apologist” in one of a series of inflammatory posts on X in January and said she should go to jail.
Mr Musk, then a close aide of US President Donald Trump, sparked a significant political row with his comments – with the Conservative Party and Reform UK calling for a new public inquiry into grooming gangs.
At the time, Ms Phillips denied a request for a public inquiry into child sexual exploitation in Oldham on the basis that it should be done at a local level.
But the government announced a national inquiry after Baroness Casey’s rapid audit on grooming gangs, which was published in June.
Asked if she thought there was, in the words of Baroness Casey, “over representation” among suspects of Asian and Pakistani men, Ms Phillips replied: “My own experience of working with many young girls in my area – yes there is a problem. There are different parts of the country where the problem will look different, organised crime has different flavours across the board.
“But I have to look at the evidence… and the government reacts to the evidence.”
Ms Phillips also said the home secretary has written to all police chiefs telling them that data collection on ethnicity “has to change”, to ensure that it is always recorded, promising “we will legislate to change the way this [collection] is done if necessary”.
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Operation Beaconport has since been established, led by the National Crime Agency (NCA), and will be reviewing more than 1,200 closed cases of child sexual exploitation.
Ms Phillips revealed that at least “five, six” councils have asked to be a part of the national review – and denounced councils that believed they don’t have a problem with grooming gangs as “idiots”.
“I don’t want [the inquiry] just to go over places that have already had inquiries and find things the Casey had already identified,” she said.
She confirmed that a shortlist for a chair has been drawn up, and she expects the inquiry to be finished within three years.
Ms Phillips’s comments come after she announced £426,000 of funding to roll out artificial intelligence tools across all 43 police forces in England and Wales to speed up investigations into modern slavery, child sex abuse and county lines gangs.
Some 13 forces have access to the AI apps, which the Home Office says have saved more than £20m and 16,000 hours for investigators.
The apps can translate large amounts of text in foreign languages and analyse data to find relationships between suspects.
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