Chris Pincher, the MP whose conduct kickstarted the end of Boris Johnson’s premiership, is standing down at the next election.
Mr Pincher, the MP for Tamworth since 2010, resigned from his job as deputy chief whip in June last year following allegations about his conduct.
Mr Pincher was accused of groping two men in a private members club, but it later emerged that he had already been investigated for his conduct three years earlier.
He apologised for “drinking far too much” and admitted to embarrassing “himself and other people”.
He was then suspended from the party in July, but critics suggested the disciplinary action was not swift enough.
Downing Street eventually admitted that Mr Johnson had been told about an investigation into Mr Pincher’s inappropriate behaviour in 2019, despite days of it saying he had been unaware of specific allegations against his former deputy chief whip.
Mr Johnson later acknowledged he had been informed of inappropriate behaviour dating back three years but suggested he forgot.
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Although he apologised, the former prime minister’s handling of the scandal precipitated his downfall after it followed allegations of rule breaking in Downing Street during the COVID pandemic.
MPs’ goodwill was also tested by his attempts to change the rules to prevent the suspension of then-Conservative MP Owen Paterson after he broke lobbying rules.
Moments after Mr Johnson apologised for appointing Mr Pincher, Rishi Sunak and Sajid Javid, then the chancellor and health secretary respectively, resigned from their cabinet positions.
It sparked a wave of resignations that led to the collapse of Mr Johnson’s government.
Mr Pincher has sat in the Commons as an independent MP ever since he was was stripped of the Tory party whip.
He remains under investigation by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards for “actions causing significant damage to the reputation of the House as a whole, or of its members generally”.
