A senior Conservative minister, Conor Burns, has been sacked from the government after an allegation of “serious misconduct” relating to his behaviour at this week’s party conference.
Truss asked him to step down from his role as a minister of state in the trade department and he had the Conservative whip withdrawn pending an investigation.
Burns is the sixth Conservative MP to have had the whip withdrawn or quit politics in the past 18 months over allegations of misconduct.
After the latest scandal, the prime minister is likely to face accusations she has failed to get to grips with her party, although government sources highlighted her quick action against Burns when facing a complaint, in contrast to Johnson’s reluctance to suspend colleagues.
“Following a complaint of serious misconduct, the prime minister has asked Conor Burns MP to leave the government with immediate effect,” No 10 said.
“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.”
Burns was appointed by Truss less than a month ago and his appointment was vetted by the Cabinet Office’s propriety and ethics team.
The allegation relates to Burns’ behaviour at the party conference in Birmingham earlier this week, and is understood to have allegedly taken place in a hotel bar.
In a statement on Friday night, he accused the party of a “rush to judgment”. He said on Twitter: “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 On the basis of this complaint Ms Morton told me that the whip was being withdrawn and that I was standing down as trade minister.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 inquiry and look forward to clearing my name. I hope the party will be as quick to conduct their inquiry as they were to rush to judgment.”
Burns was a close ally of Boris Johnson as one of his inner circle who helped him through the various scandals that beset his premiership.
His sacking comes after a series of scandals 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.
Other Tory MPs who have got into trouble in recent months include Neil Parish, who resigned as an MP after admitting watching porn in the House of Commons, and an unnamed Conservative MP who was asked to stay away from parliament after being arrested on suspicion of serious sexual offences, including rape. The MP has not had the whip withdrawn in this case.
Imran Ahmad Khan, the former Tory MP for Wakefield, was suspended in June 2021 and convicted in May 2022 of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy; while the former Conservative cabinet minister Owen Paterson resigned as an MP in late 2021 after a furore over paid lobbying, leading to a shock Lib Dem byelection win.
Another Conservative MP, David Warburton, who represents Somerton and Frome, had the whip suspended while under investigation for sexual harassment by the House of Commons’ independent complaints and grievance scheme. He insisted he had “enormous amounts of defence, but unfortunately the way things work means that doesn’t come out first”.
Burns was a Northern Ireland minister before Liz 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.
Chris Bryant, the Labour MP and chair of the standards committee, highlighted the high numbers of misconduct cases across the parties since the 2019 election.
“So far in this parliament, 16 MPs have been suspended from the House or have resigned their seat for various misdemeanours. At least five more are under investigation. This is completely unprecedented. No parliament has ever seen this before. And we’ve two years to go,” he added.
Mike Clancy, the general secretary of the Prospect union, which represents staff who works for the House of Commons, called for a mechanism for MPs to be suspended from parliament.
“It is right that Conor Burns has been both removed from government and also had the whip removed following these serious allegations,” he said.
“However, it highlights once again that no formal mechanism exists to prevent MPs accused of this kind of serious misconduct from attending Westminster and interacting with staff, other MPs, visitors and school groups.
“We hope that arrangements will be put in place to make sure this MP does not access parliament, to protect others at Westminster, and that this is adhered to while these allegations are investigated.”
A whip’s office spokesperson said: “We have suspended the whip pending investigation into allegations of inappropriate behaviour earlier this week.
“We take all such allegations extremely seriously. The prime minister has been clear that the highest standards in public life must be upheld.”
Angela Rayner, Labour’s deputy leader, criticised Truss’s refusal to appoint an ethics adviser in light of the allegations against a minister. “After just a month as prime minister, Liz Truss’s government is already beset by scandal,” she said.
“This deeply disturbing revelation is the latest in a long line of serious misconduct allegations, and raises serious questions not only about yet another minister but about the prime minister’s judgement in refusing to appoint an independent ethics adviser.”
