UK business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng has said that allegations of blackmail by government whips against Tory rebels need to be investigated, reported the Guardian.
He added that those allegations are 'unlikely to be true'.
“Any form of blackmail and intimidation of that kind simply has no place in British politics. We need to get to the bottom of the matter. I’d find it very unlikely that these allegations are true," Kwarteng was quoted as saying by the newspaper.
Last week, William Wragg, the chair of the public administration committee, claimed there had been attempted blackmail involving threats to funding in the constituencies of his fellow Conservative MPs who backed a confidence vote on Boris Johnson’s leadership.
But, No 10 dismissed the allegations and said they would only be investigated if any evidence was presented, the report added.
Kwarteng said: “I find it strange because the whip’s office doesn’t actually have the power over spending in that way. But obviously, we’re going to take the allegation seriously and we need to look [get] to the bottom of it.”
He added that he was very 'surprised' to see the allegations.
“I don’t want to get drawn into what will happen if unsubstantiated allegations [are] proven true. All I would like to say is that it’s completely unacceptable. And we need to get to the bottom of the matter," the minister said.
Christian Wakeford, the former Tory MP who defected to Labour on Wednesday (19), said the whips had threatened to withhold money for a school in his Bury South constituency when he was considering rebelling against the government.
“He’s a Labour MP now, and of course, part of his job is to try and discredit the government," Kwarteng said on Wakeford's move.
“I think the claims have been unsubstantiated, as the prime minister said, he hadn’t seen any evidence. I haven’t seen any evidence of this. Any allegation of that seriousness should be looked into and would have consequences if it is found to be true," Kwarteng was quoted as saying by the Guardian.
According to media reports, rebels were considering releasing texts or recordings of their conversations with whips to show their tactics.
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