About a dozen Tory MPs said to have accused party whips of blackmail
Standards committee chair says claims include having money pulled from constituencies or promise of funding for ‘right vote’
The Tory MP William Wragg is preparing to meet the police over his allegation that No 10 was trying to blackmail MPs seeking to oust Boris Johnson. Photograph: PRU/AFP/Getty Images
Clea Skopeliti
Sat 22 Jan 2022 10.54 GMT
About a dozen Tory MPs have made similar allegations in the last few days to a colleague who claims the party’s whips have engaged in blackmail, the chair of the Commons standards committee has said.
Chris Bryant’s remarks come as William Wragg, the senior Tory backbencher who accused No 10 of trying to blackmail MPs seeking to oust Boris Johnson, prepares to meet the police over his allegations.
Bryant, the Labour MP for the Rhondda, said he took the allegations very seriously and underlined that they were a matter for the police.
He said about a dozen Tory MPs had told him in recent days that whips had either threatened them with having money pulled from their constituencies or promised funding if they vote “the right way”.
“I have even heard MPs alleging that the prime minister himself has been doing this,” Bryant told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme. “What I have said to all of those people is that that is misconduct in public office. The people who should be dealing with such allegations are the police.
“It is illegal. We are meant to operate as MPs without fear or favour. The allocation of taxpayer funding to constituencies should be according to need, not according to the need to keep the prime minister in his job.”
https://www.theguardian.com/politic...said-to-have-accused-party-whips-of-blackmail