The Tory, who is being investigated for allegedly touching two men, said he was seeking “professional medical support” and hoped to return to his duties as an MP “as soon as possible”.
Chris Pincher said on Saturday he was “really sorry” and promised to cooperate fully with the investigation into his drunken behavior at a private members’ club in London.
The MP for Tamworth in Staffordshire resigned from his government role after the allegations surfaced, and Boris Johnson bowed to pressure to remove the Conservative whip.
Now sitting as an independent, Mr Pincher is struggling to stay in the House of Commons despite opponents saying his position is untenable.
In a statement, he said: “I respect the Prime Minister’s decision to suspend the whip while an investigation is under way, and I will fully cooperate with that.
“As I told the Prime Minister, I drank way too much on Wednesday night, embarrassed myself and others, and I am really sorry for the upset I caused.
“The tension of the past few days, which has come over the past few months, has made me accept that I will benefit from professional medical support.
“I am in the process of looking for it now, and I hope to be able to return to my constituency duties as soon as possible.”
Critics in Westminster are unlikely to be calmed by the statement of the man who resigned as deputy chief whip when reports of his latest behavior first appeared.
Neil Parish, the former Conservative MP who was put under pressure to resign from the Commons after watching pornography in parliament, accused No. 10 of “double standards”.
Tory backbencher Andrew Bridgen reflected the sentiment, suggesting Pincher was treated differently because he was an “arch-loyalist” towards the Prime Minister.
Caroline Nokes and Karen Bradley, two Tories who chair Commons-selected committees, have appealed to Mr. Johnson done to implement a “zero-tolerance” policy on sexual misconduct claims.
Mr Johnson had questions about the delay in suspending the whip and why he had appointed the MP in the key role despite previous allegations.
Mr Bridgen said the allegations about Mr. Pincher had “been wandering around Westminster for years” and suggested that Downing Street would surely have been aware of it.
Dominic Cummings, mr. Johnson’s chief assistant, who has become the main critic, accused the prime minister of “lying again” about his knowledge of Mr. Pincher’s behavior before giving him the whip.
Mr Cummings said Mr Long before he was appointed, Johnson “laughingly referred to the MP in No. 10 as ‘Pincher by name, pincher by nature'”.
The prime minister opposed calls for action until the Independent Complaints and Grievance Scheme (ICGS) launched an investigation after receiving a formal complaint.
Johnson spoke to several individuals on Friday, including a Tory MP who was with one of the men allegedly touched by Mr Pincher, a source in Downing Street said.
“The bill given was disturbing enough to make the prime minister feel more upset by it all,” the source told the PA news agency.
Further claims have been filed against Mr Pincher, with The Times reporting that a young Tory activist received an unwanted sexual assault last year.
In the absence of any formal complaints, it was not appropriate to terminate an appointment on the basis of unfounded allegations.
The activist said the MP put his hand on his knee and told him he would “go far in the party” at a party conference event last year.
Mr Pincher’s lawyers told the newspaper he strongly denied the allegation, reflecting a complaint that led to the MP’s resignation from the whips’ office for the first time in 2017.
Former Olympic rower and Conservative candidate Alex Story has claimed that Mr. Pincher touched him while making an unwanted pass and using similar language.
Mr Pincher was reappointed as a senior whip by Theresa May two months later after referring himself to both the police and the Conservative Party complaint procedure.
Downing Street apparently acknowledged there was concern when he was appointed to the Whips’ office in February, with responsibility for discipline over Tory MPs.
However, a No 10 spokesman said the Prime Minister had not been made aware of anything that would have prevented the appointment from proceeding.
“In the absence of any formal complaints, it was not appropriate to terminate an appointment based on unfounded allegations,” the spokesman said.
The latest allegations came after the Conservative Party was hit by a series of scandals related to sexual misconduct.
In May, Mr Parish resigned as MP for Tiverton and Honiton after admitting to watching pornography in the Commons chamber, while last month Wakefield MP Imran Ahmad Khan was jailed for 18 months for sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy.
In both cases, the Conservatives lost the ensuing by-elections.
A third unnamed Conservative MP has been told by whips to stay away from parliament after being arrested on suspicion of rape and other offenses.