Blackmail

It is a bold claim in these remarkable times, but yesterday was a shocking day in Westminster politics.

A leading Conservative MP, William Wragg, accused the Government Whips of using what ammounted to blackmail in order to get backbench MPs to support Johnson. He advised those affected to contact the Police.

THe recently defected former Conservative MP made the specific allegation that at the end of 2020 he was told to vote against free school meals or his constituency would lose a new school that was planned to be built. He left after threats to erase the constituency from the political map if he did not support Johnson this week. Which was the final straw and caused him to leave the Government benches.

Nt that you would know this if you read today's front pages of The Mail, The Express and the Torygraph, all who lead on other stories, the Mail doing some Union bashing, the Torygraph reporting on schools defying the removal of the mask mandate and the imininant cost of living disaster coming with massive fuel proce increases and inflation already at 5.2%.

There has been no sign of the PM for two days as news of this latest scandal broke, official statement from a spokesperson in Number 10 said they had seen no evidence of this, but from the same people who failed to notice at least 11 parties over a period of a year, such claims are meaningless.

Meanwhile, several leaks from the supposed "independent" Sue Gray inquiry now suggests whe has found evidence that Johnson's office knew of the party, and was planning on interviewing Cummings in light of that. Quite how that squares with being independent is another matter.

Several Ministers, other than Johnson, refuse to answer the question of whether they attended any party during COVID, instead stating, in effect, Sue Gray would be supplying that information.

What a time to be alive.