Tory backbencher William Wragg has accused the government and Number 10's special advisors of blackmailing rebels to support the Prime Minister by threatening to withdraw funding from their constituencies. Wragg has suggested those on the receiving end should go to the police to report it.
Astonishing on several levels really. Wragg can shove it up his backside because none of these Tory backbenchers had a problem with the government using "vote for a Conservative MP and we'll give your constituency more funding" as a campaigning strategy which was raised around the time of the Hartlepool by-election and is absolute gutter politics. According to Wragg and his friends, though, blackmailing the electorate to get them to vote Tory is fine but dare to blackmail a Tory MP and we'll report you to the police.
I absolutely despise this lot. I know increasing funding in constituencies your party needs to win in order to stay in power isn't new or exclusive to the Conservatives, but the way they've gone about it is absolutely vile. Conservative government refuses to fund Labour-voting constituencies for a decade, then campaigns on a platform of "look how your Labour MP has let you down and taken you for granted" when said constituencies start rotting at the edges, go on to win the constituencies that they've actively and cynically neglected for years while peddling pure guff about "levelling up". No interest in the betterment of this country or its population at all, just pure power-grabbing.
While it's good that Wragg has had a pop at the government in that it damages Johnson, it would be nice if one day the political discourse in this country taken up by Tory in-fighting could drop below 90%. Wragg will now stand up and claimed to be an "old-fashioned Conservative with principles" or something like that when all he's actually doing is saying "blackmail the electorate to keep us in power all you want but I absolutely draw the line when it comes to you threatening my mates on the back benches!"
Shithouses.