Tory Whip Quits after 'Groping Two Men'

Noa Hoffman (Political Reporter, the Sun) and Kate Ferguson (Sun on Sunday Political editor, The Sun's Deputy Political Editor at the time of the story) exclusively revealed that Tory deputy chief whip Chris Pincher had allegedly groped two men at the Carlton Club.

This top exclusive was broken by Noa and Kate during Noa’s first week at The Sun. Our revelation that Chris Pincher had resigned after allegedly groping two men at the Carlton Club in front of appalled onlookers sent shockwaves through Westminster. The story raised serious questions not just about the behaviour of MPs (building on the Sun’s top work exposing other sexual harassment and assault allegations in the sexminster scandal), but also about what Boris Johnson and others at No10 knew about Mr Pincher’s alleged behaviour towards men, and when. After initially trying to stand by Mr Pincher and let him carry on as a Tory MP, Mr Johnson eventually U-turned and withdrew the Tory whip from him. He bowed to pressure after every single news outlet followed up our scoop. The Sun kept the pressure up, with further stories containing more exclusive details of claims against Mr Pincher dating back over a decade and the furious backlash it had provoked among Tory MPs. Mr Johnson’s handling of the allegations was widely condemned by his own MPs and the public, and contributed to the massive erosion of his authority as PM. A week after the story broke, he announced he was resigning. This scoop shows journalism at its best - exposing wrongdoing at the heart of government. It had huge public interest - bringing to light an allegations of sexual assault against a senior politician, but also raising serious questions about No10’s handling of that allegation which had a seismic impact on the government and, in all likelihood contributed to the timing of Mr Johnson’s downfall as PM a week later.