Tory defector Christian Wakeford has claimed he was threatened with the loss of constituency funding by Boris Johnson’s allies.
The Bury South MP, who sensationally joined Labour on Wednesday, made the allegations amid claims by senior Conservative William Wragg that No10 special advisers and whips were using “blackmail” tactics against MPs unhappy with the Prime Minister .
Wakeford told BBC North West: “I was threatened that I would not get the school for Radcliffe if I did not vote in one particular way.”
He added: “How would you feel when holding back regeneration of a town for a vote?
“It didn’t sit comfortably and that was really starting to question my place where I was and ultimately to where I am now.”
Labour’s Jonathan Ashworth accused the Government of being “rotten to the core” and Lib Dem MP Alistair Carmichael compared the tactics to those employed by the mafia.
Wragg, the Tory chairman of the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee, reignited the battle against Johnson on Thursday morning.
He revealed that he had received reports of “members of staff at 10 Downing Street, special advisers, government ministers and others encouraging the publication of stories in the press seeking to embarrass those who they suspect of lacking confidence in the Prime Minister”.
He said the whips were responsible for pushing forward Government business, but added: “It is not their function to breach the ministerial code in threatening to withdraw investments from members of parliament’s constituencies which are funded from the public purse.”
Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross MP, who has urged Johnson to go, said he had not received such treatment, but funding for many projects in Scotland is in the hands of the SNP/Green Government and local authorities.
Johnson, who is facing a no-confidence vote in his leadership, said he had seen “no evidence to support any of those allegations” as he visited a diagnostics centre in Taunton.
He said he would “of course” look for evidence to support Wragg’s allegations.
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