Voters in Radcliffe say the alleged ‘threat’ from Downing Street to pull funding for a high school if its MP did not toe the party line is ‘disgusting’ if true.
Bury South MP Christian Wakeford made the comments yesterday (January 20) after defecting to Labour from the Conservatives 24 hours earlier.
He was responding to accusations made by William Wragg that alleged Number 10 officials ‘blackmailed’ backbench Tory MPs into voting with the government.
Mr Wakeford told the BBC: “I was threatened that I would not get the school for Radcliffe if I didn't vote in one particular way.
“This is a town that's not had high school for the best part of 10 years — and how do you feel when holding back [the] regeneration of a town for a vote?”
Number 10 has denied the accusations, saying it was ‘not aware of any evidence to support what are clearly serious allegations.’
When the Manchester Evening News visited the town in Bury on Friday morning (January 21), voters there said it was ‘disgusting’ if the exchange had indeed taken place.
“We don't know if it is true,” Alex Lewis, 73, said. “It might just be a rumour.
“It makes me feel really upset. Boris is not doing very well over the last 12 months.”
Sue Devlin, 80, added: “I think it's disgusting. Radcliffe has been left so much.
“I felt angry to be honest. I tell you what, I have never listened so much [to the news].
“Boris is disgusting. I'm a royalist just to think about the Queen on her own, it's awful.”
Another woman, who only gave her name as Caitlin, agreed: “If it did happen then it is disgusting.
“They know about the catchment areas, everyone is always panicking to get a good place.”
However, some voters also took issue with Mr Wakeford’s defection to the Labour party on Wednesday, with one saying he ‘should have stayed and fought’.
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“I think you should have stayed and fought with the Tories,” one woman, who had lived in Radcliffe for her entire life, told the M.E.N.
Asking to stay anonymous, she continued: “He had more that he could do if he was there, but he has put his letter in to be a Labour MP.
“Stay and fight, do not be intimidated.”
The woman also said she could ‘imagine’ the alleged threat to Christian Wakeford happening.
Another woman who wished to not give her name said: “When we voted for him [he was Conservative] and now he has crossed the sides.
“It is like a Catholic church getting a Muslim preacher. It's a bit like ying and yang.
“That is not what we voted for.
“We do need a school — I do not know no what was said and the context of it. It is not right, a lot of people are upset.”
Nicola Defeo, a parent, said she was unconvinced that the school would be built.
“I'm just waiting [to see] if it will happen,” she said. “How many years have they been talking about it?
“We are not going to get it. They are full of promises. We are going to get… nothing.
“This is important. My lad has to go to Little Lever or to the other side of Bury [when he starts secondary school].”
