Scotland Yard to meet MP over claims Boris Johnson critics are being blackmailed
Police are to meet with William Wragg, to discuss his claims that Downing Street has tried to intimidate and blackmail MPs questioning the Prime Minister’s position.
Johnson has come under fire in recent weeks following revelations of lockdown parties held at Downing Street, with several Tory MPs calling for him to go.
Wragg is to meet a Met Police detective at the House of Commons early next week, following the MP’s request to meet with police.
The government has said it has seen no evidence of blackmail but that it would look at any evidence it was presented with.
Without fear or favour
Around a dozen Tory MPs have told Chris Bryant, chairman of the Commons Committee on Standards, that they have been threatened with losing funding for their constituencies by whips.
Speaking to the BBC, Bryant said: “We are not the United States. We don’t run a ‘pork barrel’ system. 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.”
MPs have claimed they were threatened with the withdrawal of funding for schools and bypasses, Bryant said.
A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: “As with any such allegations, should a criminal offence be reported to the Met, it would be considered.”
Wragg, who has called on the Prime Minister to quit amid the ‘partygate’ scandals, claimed MPs had faced “intimidation” at a committee hearing on Thursday.
He said: “Reports of which I am aware would 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 the Commissioner of Metropolitan Police.”