Of course the PM and his allies backed their disgraced deputy chief whip. Just two scandals? That hardly registers these days
Because nothing is too on-the-nose for the current Conservative party, the intro of Chris Pincher’s latest drinking column featured Uncle Monty from Withnail and I. “That lubricious booby”, Pincher called Monty, in an article for the Critic magazine filed some time before he appeared to admit drunkenly groping two younger men on Wednesday night. I wonder what Uncle Chris was saying as he chased them round the Carlton Club? “I mean to have you, even if it must be burglary!”
In reality, the dialogue is likely to have been less iconic than any of that movie’s quotable quotes. The last time Pincher resigned for alleged sexual misconduct – of course there was a last time – he was accused of luring a former Olympic rower back to his home before reappearing in a bathrobe, massaging his victim’s neck and untucking his shirt, while whispering: “You’ll go far in the Conservative party.” Just call him Harvey Winetime.
Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist
