William Wragg has accused the government of “intimidation”
Senior Tory William Wragg has accused the government of attempting to “blackmail” members of parliament out of submitting letters of no-confidence in Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
Wragg, who is the chairman of the Commons Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee, said Members of Parliament were being threatened with having funding for their constituencies withdrawn if they called on the PM to quit.
Speaking at a committee meeting on Thursday, Wragg claimed a number of members have “faced pressures and intimidation from members of the government because of their declared or assumed desire for a vote of no confidence in the party leadership of the Prime Minister”.
🚨BREAKING: Tory MP accuses the government of blackmail pic.twitter.com/NPkPNNZgaN
— PoliticsJOE (@PoliticsJOE_UK) January 20, 2022
The senior Tory, who called for Johnson to resign last week said “the Intimidation of a member of parliament is a serious matter”.
He continued: “Reports of which I am aware seem to constitute blackmail as such it would be my general advice to colleagues to report these matters to the speaker of the House of Commons and to the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police.”
If the government is found to have intimidated or blackmailed a Member of Parliament, it could be considered a breach of the Ministerial code.
Deputy leader of the Labour party Angela Rayner has called for an investigations into the “shocking” and “disgusting” accusations of blackmail.
Rayner said: “The idea that areas of our country will be starved of funding because their MPs don’t fall into line to prop up this failing Prime Minister is disgusting”.
A spokesperson for Number 10 said: “We are not aware of any evidence to support what are clearly serious allegations.
“If there is any evidence to support these claims we would look at it very carefully.”
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