The president of Magdalene College’s MCR has been suspended after at least a fifth of MCR members wrote to Paul Dupree, the College’s postgraduate tutor, expressing no confidence in him, Varsity has learned.

The development comes after this newspaper revealed that several members of the MCR committee were attempting to oust Duarte from his position over a number of misconduct allegations.

Duarte was accused of a “lack of commitment” to his MCR role.

He was also independently accused of punching MCR vice-president James Ball by two sources. At the time of original publication, Ball himself declined to confirm the allegation, as a College investigation was ongoing, but has now since confirmed to Varsity that an assault did take place. Ball was seen with a black eye in the days after the incident. Duarte told Varsity he “strongly denies” that he assaulted Ball.

Comments made in a video from MCR hustings in 2018, where Duarte was running for vice-president as a master’s student, also caused controversy.

In the video seen by Varsity, Duarte proposed to solve “the biggest problem in College”, which he said is: “where is the pussy?” He prefaced that comment by saying “it’s not me saying it … they say ‘Captain [Duarte is dressed as a pirate in the video], where is it?’”

Duarte claimed that he had “a few ideas about how to solve that problem”.

He went on to describe his solution saying: “The one thing I’m about… is diversity and inclusion. So I won’t just get female concubines [a word for a low status mistress], I’ll get male concubines as well”.

The remark was criticised at the hustings, and Duarte was told that he was on his final warning. One attendee can be heard saying “come on man” in the video.

Duarte lost that election.

In an email sent to members of the MCR, aimed at drumming up support for the no confidence vote, senior members of the MCR committee said that Duarte had demonstrated a “lack of commitment” to MCR activities and a “lack of collaboration” with the rest of the MCR for the planning of future activities.

The MCR vice-president, treasurer and secretary added: “He has not shown any kind of responsibility for his behaviour, nor shown any interest in our concerns”.

Now that Duarte has been suspended, a no-confidence vote will be held. For him to be removed, at least 50% of the electorate would need to turn out, and half of voters would need to cast their ballot in favour of deposing the president.

If these thresholds are not reached, Duarte will be reinstated as president, Varsity understands.

Duarte responded to the initial calls for a no confidence vote by declaring that he has “taken the job of representing you all extremely seriously” and that he wants to “treat the MCR like a family” in his quest for a “chilled, funky, disgustingly groovy MCR”.

In a statement to Varsity, Duarte said: “The pirate monologue was stand-up comedy and the peacock campaign was some delightful student fun. I am the president of a student club, not president of the United States.

“The feeding of histrionic, misleading stories to a student newspaper run by undergraduates is bizarre. The allegations of misconduct published by Varsity are all completely false.”

“I wish everybody a good day. I must focus on my studies now.”

This remains a breaking news story and further updates will be made as new information comes to light.