LONDON, January 21, Reuters -- British Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said on Friday that lawmakers had been intimidated and blackmailed by representatives of the government, which seemed strange and were unlikely to be true.
A senior Conservative lawmaker accused the British government on Thursday of intimidating and trying to blackmail lawmakers they suspect of wanting to force Prime Minister Boris Johnson out of power.
William Wragg, chair of the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee, said some lawmakers had been subject to blackmail and intimidation because they wanted to topple Johnson.
I have been an MP for 12 years now and I have never heard of the kind of allegations being made by Kwarteng, according to Kwarteng, who has been an MP for 12 years. I find it very unlikely that these allegations are true. He said he had never heard that money could be withheld from communities on account of the behaviour of the whips who enforces party discipline.
I find it strange because the whip's office doesn't actually have the power over spending in that way, he said.
Johnson, who won his party's biggest majority in more than 30 years in 2019, is trying to shore up his authority after a series of revelations about parties in his Downing Street residence during COVID lockdowns.
Johnson has apologised for the parties and said he was unaware of many of them.
He said on Tuesday that nobody had told him the gathering was against COVID rules, and he thought it was a work event on May 20, 2020, to which staff had been told to bring their own booze.
The Conservative Party has a number of leading rivals, including Chancellor Rishi Sunak, 41, and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, 46.
Truss, who was in Australia, said she supported Johnson.
Truss said the Prime Minister has 100% support. I want the Prime Minister to continue his job as long as possible. He is doing a fantastic job.