The former head of Britain’s foreign office on Tuesday sensationally trashed Downing Street’s official story that Boris Johnson was unaware of “specific” allegations of sexual wrongdoing against an ally before appointing him to a key role in government. Chris Pincher resigned from his position as deputy chief whip—a job that involves maintaining discipline among lawmakers—after he was accused of drunkenly groping two men last week. Since then, around a dozen new allegations of groping, harassment, and other abuses of power against Pincher over a decade have surfaced. Downing Street defended Johnson’s decision to appoint Pincher to his senior role in government in February by claiming the prime minister didn’t know about the “specific” allegations against him at the time of the appointment. “This is not true,” Lord McDonald, a former senior civil servant, wrote in a letter to a parliamentary watchdog revealed Tuesday. McDonald claims that Johnson was in fact briefed about specific allegations about Pincher’s behavior “in person” after a “formal complaint” was made against him in 2019.
