Trade Minister Conor Burns has been sacked from his governmental role and had the Tory whip withdrawn following an allegation of "serious misconduct", The Mirror has reported.
It is understood that a third party made a complaint to the Tory whips' office regarding the alleged behaviour of Mr Burns toward a man at the Conservative party conference in Birmingham earlier this week. A source said that the alleged incident happened in a hotel bar.
Mr Burns himself said he had not been told the nature of the allegations and said that his party had made a “rush to judgement”. He said: “I will fully cooperate with the Party's enquiry and look forward to clearing my name.”
Mr Burns was also suspended as a patron of LGBT+ Conservatives pending the outcome of an investigation into his conduct. A spokesman for No 10 said: “Following a complaint of serious misconduct, the Prime Minister has asked Conor Burns MP to leave the Government with immediate effect.
"The Prime Minister took direct action on being informed of this allegation and is clear that all ministers should maintain the high standards of behaviour, as the public rightly expects.” A whips' office spokesman said: “We have suspended the Whip pending investigation into allegations of inappropriate behaviour earlier this week."
Mr Burns, the 50-year-old MP for Bournemouth West since 2010, was a fiercely loyal minister under Boris Johnson. He resigned from government in May 2020 after an unrelated standards probe found he "used his parliamentary position in an attempt to intimidate a member of the public", in a dispute involving his family.
He said at the time: "I profoundly regret involving myself in this in any way and if I could turn the clock back I would not have done it." He returned as a minister 16 months later. While back in government, he infamously claimed that Mr Johnson was "ambushed with a cake" during lockdown parties in Downing Street.
Last month he was given a job by Liz Truss, who moved him sideways from the Northern Ireland Office to the Department for International Trade. His appointment was cleared by the Cabinet Office propriety and ethics team, according to No 10.
Mr Burns went public on Twitter on Friday night, stating: “Earlier I received a call from the Chief Whip Wendy Morton. Ms Morton informed me that a complaint had been received about me and she had passed it to Conservative Campaign Headquarters to investigate. I was not given any information about the complaint nor was I asked to provide any information.
“On the basis of this complaint Ms Morton told me that the Whip was being withdrawn and that I was standing down as Trade Minister. I will fully cooperate with the Party's enquiry and look forward to clearing my name. I hope the party will be as quick to conduct their enquiry as they were to rush to judgement.”
This was the latest in a string of allegations to have plagued the Conservatives. Deputy chief whip Chris Pincher was stripped of the whip in June after it was claimed he groped two men in a club — a claim that helped trigger Mr Johnson's downfall as Prime Minister on the basis that he was too slow to suspend the whip from Mr Pincher. By contrast, No 10 today issued a statement sacking Mr Burns less than an hour after the allegations entered the public domain.
MP Neil Parish stood down after it emerged he had watched pornography in the House of Commons, although he later said that he had stumbled across the page by accident while searching online for tractors.
Separately, an unnamed Tory MP is on bail accused of rape as the Metropolitan Police carries out an investigation.
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