Disgraced former minister Andrew Griffiths remains in the Conservatives after a meeting in which his future was discussed in front of party officials.

Griffiths did not attend the meeting of East Staffordshire Conservative association on Monday night. It is understood members had a forum to discuss whether the position of the Burton and Uttoxeter MP was tenable. However, no decision on his future was made and no votes were cast.



One party member told the Guardian that Mike Wood, the Conservative MP for Dudley South, spoke on behalf of Griffiths. However, members were told there would not be a decision on his future until the outcome of an independent investigation being carried out by Conservative Campaign Headquarters.

Griffiths, the prime minister’s former chief of staff who resigned as a minister after sending hundreds of sexually explicit messages to two women, has also been accused of having bullied a council leader for several years when May took office in July 2016.



The 47-year-old stood down as minister for small business last month after it emerged he had sent more than 2,000 texts, many of them sexually aggressive, to two bar workers more than 20 years his junior.



The Guardian revealed that Griffiths was promoted to minister for small business in January despite being under investigation over allegations of inappropriate touching and bullying by Deneice Florence-Jukes, a former Tory borough councillor, who had filed a formal complaint three months earlier.



Thousands of people signed a petition calling for Griffiths to step down and last week about 100 people attended a protest calling for his resignation. Many in his own party have refused to publicly back him as concerns about his past conduct have become public.



A statement was due to be released by East Staffordshire Conservative association after the meeting at the Pirelli Stadium in Burton. It is thought central Conservative officials talked members through the party’s disciplinary procedure.



Council leader Richard Grosvenor told the Burton Mail before the meeting: “I am not sure we can take any action this evening. I am not sure there is an appetite from some members to take any action.”



Another councillor, Mick Bowering, said: “I am not a fan of his behaviour. I want to learn about what is being said at the meeting before I can say anything. I certainly do hope he will attend.”

Gary Raybould, a Tory candidate for Tutbury, said: “It is a shame because the man has done a lot of work in the town and unfortunately, when you live life in the public sector, you live that role. You take the positives and the negatives.”



Griffiths is suspended from the Conservative party pending the investigation but remains an MP. He previously said he was due to “seek professional treatment” after his messages were exposed in the Sunday Mirror on 15 July.