UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Tuesday that he made a “bad mistake” by appointing Chris Pincher as deputy chief whip in February 2022 despite being aware of the sexual misconduct complaint of 2019 against the MP. 

Johnson’s statement comes days after Pincher resigned from the post following allegations that he groped two men in a private club on June 30. 

However, the 2019 complaint that Johnson addressed isn’t the first time that Pincher has come under fire for making inappropriate advances towards people.

In 2017, Pincher served as assistant whip and Comptroller of the Household. However, he put in his resignation on November 5 after allegations against him came to light. 

The allegations were made by former Olympic rower and activist Alex Story, who accused Pincher of making sexual advances towards him after he had invited the politician to his home in London. 

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The incident happened nine years before 2017, when Pincher was an MP. 

Story alleged that Pincher tried to remove his shirt and went on to caress his neck. Later on, he poured a whisky and allegedly told Story: “You’ll go far in the Conservative Party.”

Story claimed that Pincher left the room for a while but when he returned, he was wearing a “bathrobe like a pound shop Harvey Weinstein, with his chest and belly sticking out.”

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Back then, Pincher responded to the accusation and said, “If Mr Story has ever felt offended by anything I said, then I can only apologise to him.”

After an investigation, the Conservative party cleared Pincher of breaching the rules of the party.

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“Following media allegations, Chris Pincher referred himself to our code of conduct. Following an investigation, a panel headed by an independent QC considered the evidence and has concluded there has not been a breach of the code of conduct,” a Conservative spokesperson said in 2017, according to The Independent.