The government’s response to questions about the extent that Boris Johnson knew about Chris Pincher’s allegations was not ideal. It was so bad that a lobby reporter who attends the press number 10 briefings seemed tired today.
In case you didn’t notice, Number 10 appeared to alter its story a few more times about how much the PM knew of Pincher after he resigned from being accused in groping 2 men. This triggered flood allegations about Pincher’s conduct over the years (dating to before Johnson promoted Pincher to deputy chief whip earlier this month).
On 1 July, No 10’s deputy official spokesperson insisted that the prime minister was not aware of any allegations against Pincher at the time of promoting him to deputy chief whip but he later corrected himself to say Johnson was not aware of any “specific”Allegations against Pincher
No 10 also acknowledged on July 4th that Johnson was aware of Pincher’s allegations at the time of his promotion to the BBC. The IndependentJohnson reported that he knew of a specific complaint against Pincher when he was a foreign ministry minister between 2019 and 2020.
No 10 stated that the allegations were true at the time. “either resolved or did not proceed to a formal complaint”Other reports claimed he had. “forgot”They had been mentioned to him.
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Simon McDonald, a crossbench peer and ex-top civil servant, wrote a letter accusing No. 10 of lying.
Given what was asked of Downing Street today, and the opinions of other lobby journalists about it, it is not fair to say that this has eroded journalist trust in Downing Street.
Brutal.
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