The Boris Johnson-led UK government suffered a major blow, Tuesday, with finance and health ministers Rishi Sunak and Sajid Javid announcing their resignations, expressing dissatisfaction with the current administration. This comes on the heels of the embattled Prime Minister’s admission of knowing about previous complaints against deputy chief whip Chris Pincher. He was accused of groping people at a dinner party and stepped down after writing a letter to Johnson saying he was drunk that night and had embarrassed himself in front of other people. 

Meanwhile, a Downing Street spokesperson didn’t deny it when asked whether Johnson used the phrase “Pincher by name, pincher by nature”, to refer to the 52-year-old Conservative party member.

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Born on September 24, 1969, in Walsali, Pincher grew up in Wombourne, Staffordshire. He has been a party member since 1987, after politicizing the miners’ strike in 1984-85. 

His political career saw him as the Tamworth MP since 2010. He was assistant government whip from July 2016 to June 2017 and was the government whip from then on till November that year. 

After the February 8, 2022 cabinet reshuffle Pincher went back to his deputy chief whip position. 

He resigned from the position of the assistant whip back in 2017 amid sexual assault accusations from Olympic rower and Conservative party member Alex Story. His recent resignation from the Johnson government came on June 30, and the PM admitted that appointing Pincher was the wrong thing to do. 

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“There is no place for anyone in this government who abuses power”, Johnson said. 

Outside politics and his scandals, Pincher is a member of the Peel Society, which is based out of Tamworth and seeks to promote interest in the life of Conservative politician Robert Peel. He’s also a patron of the Canwell Show, and writes on drinks for The Critic magazine. 

Pincher’s entry into Her Majesty’s Most Honourable Privy Council on November 23, 2018, gave him the lifetime honorific prefix ‘The Right Honourable”.