- UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson faces a slew of crises, including the resignation of his deputy chief whip.
- Conservative MP Chris Pincher quits after admitting he drank “far too much” and “embarrassed myself”.
- The UK leader’s spokesman said he was unaware of any government investigation into the matter.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson returned from a foreign trip on Friday to face a slew of crises, including the latest resignation of a senior Conservative from his scandal-plagued government.
Shortly after returning to Britain from a NATO summit in Spain, the embattled leader found his ruling Conservatives embroiled in yet another sexual impropriety scandal.
In a letter to Johnson, Conservative MP Chris Pincher announced he was quitting as deputy chief whip after admitting he drank “far too much” and “embarrassed myself and other people” late Wednesday.
Reports said he had been accused of groping two men in front of others at the exclusive Carlton Club in London, prompting complaints to the Conservatives.
His departure from its whips’ office — charged with enforcing party discipline and standards — marks the latest allegation of sexual misconduct by Tories in recent months.
Conservative MP Neil Parish resigned in April after watching pornography on his mobile phone in the House of Commons.
That prompted a by-election in his previously safe seat which the party went on to lose in a historic victory for the opposition Liberal Democrats.
Johnson himself has been embroiled in various scandals, including the so-called “Partygate” affair that led his own lawmakers to trigger a no-confidence vote in him in early June that he narrowly survived.
The 58-year-old premier still faces a parliamentary probe into whether he lied to MPs over the lockdown-breaching parties in Downing Street.
The controversies come with Britain battling a worsening cost-of-living crisis and a summer of strikes by various unions over wages and working conditions.
Meanwhile, the country continues to struggle to adapt to Brexit and is risking a possible trade war with the European Union by unilaterally overhauling the special deal it agreed with the bloc for Northern Ireland.
The Financial Times reported Friday that Britain’s trade performance this year has fallen to its worst level since records began, adding to the pound’s recent slide.
A growing chorus of critics argue Johnson’s government is too distracted by its own woes to focus on these mounting challenges.
“We’ve got a problem on trade, (a) problem on Northern Ireland, a problem with labour shortages, the pound’s significantly devalued, business investment is down,” former Labour prime minister Tony Blair told the BBC late Thursday.
“I think it is incoherent and it’s also not thought-through and the reason for that is the government’s in survival mode — they’re not thinking about what’s the right long-term plan for Britain’s future.”
Johnson returned home after nine days of globetrotting that saw him attend three international summits, including a Commonwealth gathering in Rwanda and G7 meeting in Germany.
Pincher’s resignation within hours of that immediately refocused attention on persistent claims of Tory sleaze.
It also left the UK leader with another senior post to fill after the Conservatives’ chairman quit following two bruising by-election defeats last month, including the one in Parish’s seat.
“The prime minister has accepted the resignation and thinks it was right for him to resign,” Johnson’s deputy spokesman told reporters, amid a flurry of questions about Pincher.
“(He) thinks that sort of behaviour is unacceptable and he would encourage those who wish to make a complaint, to do so,” he added, while declining to specify exactly what behaviour had prompted the ex-whip to quit.
The spokesman said he was unaware of any government investigation into the matter, amid anonymous Downing Street briefings that Pincher would remain as an MP that have prompted a backlash.
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