The former minister Conor Burns has suggested he has been denied “natural justice” after being sacked from the government for allegedly touching a young man’s thigh in a Conservative party conference hotel bar.
The prime minister, Liz Truss, sacked Burns and withdrew the Conservative whip with immediate effect on Friday, pending an investigation into the claims.
A witness told the BBC Burns was seen with a man in the early hours of Tuesday in the Hyatt Regency hotel bar in Birmingham, which was a popular venue for conference attenders. Burns has denied any wrongdoing.
It is understood the complaint was raised with Tory whips by a third party and it was this complaint that led to Burns being suspended.
Speaking to Serena Barker-Singh, from Channel 4 News, on Monday, Burns said this was against natural justice. He added: “I’ve been overwhelmed by the support from my colleagues, who have found it beyond strange that the whip was withdrawn, and I was sacked from ministerial office, without being given the opportunity to be told what the allegation was, or how I could engage in the process to respond to it.
“I used to live in a country where the rule of law, natural justice and a process took place, and where people were presumed innocent until proven otherwise.”
Asked if he thought he should have been suspended, instead of sacked, from his ministerial post, Burns said he was not going to say any more, “but I think you can realise what I think”.
Burns is the sixth Conservative MP to have had the whip withdrawn or quit politics in the past 18 months over allegations of misconduct. He was appointed by Truss less than a month ago and his appointment was vetted by the Cabinet Office’s propriety and ethics team.
He was a close ally of Boris Johnson as one of his inner circle who helped him through the various scandals that beset his premiership.
The sacking comes after a series of issues relating to the behaviour of Conservative MPs, including Chris Pincher, the former deputy chief whip, who is still sitting as an independent. Johnson’s own demise as prime minister was partly triggered by his initial refusal to withdraw the whip from Pincher after accusations of groping, which the MP denied.
Burns was a Northern Ireland minister before Truss made him trade minister in September. He previously had to resign as a trade minister in 2020 after being found to have used his position to try to intimidate a member of the public.
The senior Tory was found by the standards committee to have made a series of veiled threats while attempting to intervene in his father’s dispute over a loan.
