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Jan 20 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
BREAKING: Senior backbencher and committee chair Will Wragg accuses whips, No 10 and spads of blackmail.

MPs have faced "pressure & intimidation" for calling for PM to go.

Including cutting investment from constituencies and releasing embarrassing stories.

Serious accusation.
Will Wragg's Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee oversees the work of the cabinet office, including No 10.

This is a serious accusation that the ministerial code has been breached. Understand Wragg is also concerned the law may have been broken.
Given quite a few of the rebellious MPs are 2019 intake from the red wall, threatening to withdraw funding from their constituencies - if true - doesn't do much for the government's levelling up agenda either.
Full story of what’s just happened here:

itv.com/news/2022-01-2…
NEW: Labour’s @AngelaRayner responds:

“These are grave & shocking accusations of bullying, blackmail & misuse of public money and must be investigated. That areas of our country will be starved of funding because MPs don't fall into line to prop up this failing PM is disgusting”
No 10 spokesman:
“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.”
Will Wragg wasn’t the only MP to raise concerns with me this week about the No 10 operation (though remember these MPs do have their own agenda, so we have to take that into account too).

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More from @PaulBrandITV

Paul Brand Profile picture
Jan 18
🚨 Senior Conservative backbencher tells me tonight they are confident of getting to 54 letters tomorrow to try and oust the PM.

“Up the revolution!” they tell me.

No 10 / whips subjecting them to “threats and blackmail” but has only angered MPs further, they say.
“And colleagues are being thrown under the bus” for rebelling they say. “It’s disgusting.”

Parliament hasn’t felt this mutinous since the final days of Theresa May… whose downfall Boris Johnson played a rather large part in.
Important disclaimer: the process of sending in letters is of course secretive. We’ve been here plenty of times before where rebels think they have the numbers, but MPs haven’t actually sent the letters they claim to have sent.

So let’s see what tomorrow brings.
Read 5 tweets
Paul Brand Profile picture
Jan 13
BREAKING: The Metropolitan Police will NOT investigate any of the Downing Street parties unless and until the Sue Gray inquiry finds evidence of criminality.

ie the Met are relying on an internal inquiry to decide for them whether a crime was committed.

Full statement 👇
The many thousands of people fined for breaching Covid rules may wish they could only have asked a close colleague to investigate them before needing to involve the police.
The Metropolitan Police are already being taken to court by @GoodLawProject who argue that the police’s decision not to investigate any of the parties is unlawful. A judicial review has been launched. It will be fascinating to see what the judge concludes.
Read 8 tweets
Paul Brand Profile picture
Jan 10
EXCL: Email obtained by @itvnews proves over 100 staff were invited to drinks party in No 10 garden at height of lockdown to “make the most of the lovely weather”.

We’re told PM and his wife attended, with staff invited to “bring your own booze!”

itv.com/news/2022-01-1…
Email was sent by the PM's Principal Private Secretary Martin Reynolds. 30-40 staff attended, eating picnic food and drinking in the garden.

Less than an hour earlier, Oliver Dowden had told the public at the daily press conference to stick to meeting in pairs outdoors.
Tonight Number 10 aren't denying any of the details of the party.

They simply say they won't comment on the story due to Sue Gray's internal inquiry into the ten or so parties now under investigation.
Read 6 tweets
Paul Brand Profile picture
Dec 19, 2021
NEW: Downing Street staff and Boris Johnson pictured drinking wine in the No 10 garden last May when the rest of the country was limited to meeting just one other person socially outdoors.

Via @guardian

theguardian.com/politics/2021/…
This adds to the list of parties Sue Gray may need to investigate, as she takes over the internal inquiry into partygate. It's quite a lot to get through before Christmas... could her investigation take until the new year?
Another interesting thing about this photo is it pictures the infamous 'wine and cheese', which Downing Street staff joked about in the video we aired last week in relation to the xmas party. Adds further credence to our video - a clue that wine and cheese was a party favourite?
Read 4 tweets
Paul Brand Profile picture
Dec 17, 2021
BREAKING: Lib Dems take North Shropshire with a majority of almost 6,000 - a seat which has been Conservative since 1830s.

Another body blow to Boris Johnson’s authority - a by-election sparked by sleaze, then dogged by yet further sleaze amid party allegations.
Boris Johnson has staked his reputation on being a winner. A second by-election loss in a year seriously damages that reputation. And if there’s one thing we know about the Tory party it is that they are absolutely ruthless with any leader perceived to have become a liability.
New Lib Dem MP Helen Morgan says voters have rejected the “nightly soap opera of calamity and chaos”.

She says a message has been sent to Boris Johnson that he is “unfit to lead and it’s time for change.”
Read 5 tweets
Paul Brand Profile picture
Dec 14, 2021
The buffet… the drinks… the smiles…

Hard to conclude anything other than that this party held in CCHQ last year was a) planned b) brazen.

Who agreed to do the catering?!
CCHQ keen to stress tonight that this was an unauthorised event which was organised by Shaun Bailey's campaign and not by the Conservative Party itself.

3 staff were disciplined. The first CCHQ knew of the photo was when it emerged this evening.
It is worth saying tonight that many within government are themselves fuming at this photo, as well as other rule breaking. Civil servants and advisors feel tarred with the same brush - this brazen rule breaking has let down those who obeyed rules and worked hard for the country.
Read 4 tweets

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