Tory MP Dehenna Davison denies being part of the ‘Pork Pie Plot’

Tory MP Dehenna Davison today denied being involved in the ‘Pork Pie Plot’ to oust Boris Johnson. 

It had been claimed that Ms Davison was one of the ringleaders of a move by rebel Red Wall Conservative MPs to force a vote of no confidence in Mr Johnson over the Partygate row. 

But the MP for Bishop Auckland, who was elected for the first time in 2019, has dismissed the ‘bonkers’ suggestion that she was leading the effort as she accused Tory colleagues of briefing against her. 

Ms Davison, 28, tweeted ‘no, I’m not leading a coup’ as she posted a link to an interview with a local newspaper in which she said ‘the first thing I knew about me leading a coup’ was when she read about the claims in the press. 

She said she was ‘very disappointed that a colleague would brief out against me in this way, but it is a strange time in politics’. 

However, she admitted that she is ‘incredibly angry about the Downing Street parties and the Prime Minister’s response’. 

Ms Davison is one of the most prominent MPs from the 2019 Tory intake. In October she came out as bisexual – the first female Tory to do so publicly. 

Before becoming an MP she appeared on the Channel 4 show Bride and Prejudice to discuss her marriage with Hull Tory councillor John Fareham, a man 35 years her senior. She announced they were divorcing in 2019.   

It came as Mr Johnson tonight dismissed claims his allies have been blackmailing rebellious Tory MPs – amid claims a defector was threatened with cuts to school funding and changes to his constituency boundaries.

The PM insisted he had ‘seen no evidence to support any of those allegations’ after a dramatic intervention by William Wragg, chairman of the Commons Public Administration Committee.

Mr Wragg said he had been told of ‘pressures and intimidation’ being used on politicians and in an excoriating attack at the start of an evidence session, suggested members of the government might have breached the ministerial code by threatening to pull investment from constituencies if people send in letters of no confidence. 

‘Additionally reports to me and others of members of staff at No10 Downing Street, special advisers, government ministers and others encouraging the publication of stories in the press seeking to embarrass those they suspect of lacking confidence in the PM is similarly unacceptable,’ Mr Wragg said.

‘The intimidation of an MP is a serious matter. Moreover the reports of which I am aware would seem to constitute blackmail. 

‘As such it would be my general advice to colleagues to report these matters to the Speaker of the House of Commons and the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police.’

Christian Wakeford, the former Tory MP who defected to Labour yesterday, claimed he was previously threatened with the withdrawal of funding for a school in his Bury South constituency if he voted against the Government on free school meals.

He told the BBC: ‘How would you feel when holding back regeneration of a town for a vote, it didn’t sit comfortably. That was really starting to question my place where I was and ultimately to where I am now.’

There have been suggestions Mr Wakeford was pushed ‘over the edge’ to defect when he was hauled in and threatened with having the boundaries of his seat redrawn if he went against the PM. 

But Mr Johnson told reporters on a visit to Taunton: ‘I’ve seen no evidence to support any of those allegations.

‘What I am focused on is what we’re doing to deal with the number one priority of the British people, which is coming through Covid.’     

The Conservative MP for Bishop Auckland Dehenna Davison today denied being involved in the ‘Pork Pie Plot’ to oust Boris Johnson

It had been claimed that Ms Davison was one of the ringleaders of a move by rebel Red Wall Conservative MPs to force a vote of no confidence in Mr Johnson over the Partygate row

But the MP for Bishop Auckland, who was elected for the first time in 2019, has dismissed the ‘bonkers’ suggestion that she was leading the effort as she accused Tory colleagues of briefing against her. She is picture canvassing in Bishop Auckland with Carrie Johnson and Rishi Sunak

Before becoming an MP she appeared on the Channel 4 show Bride and Prejudice to discuss her marriage with Hull Tory councillor John Fareham, a man 35 years her senior. She announced they were divorcing in 2019.

Bisexual Tory rising star who married councillor 35 years her senior and was pally with Carrie before being linked to plot to overthrow Boris

Dehenna Davison is the face of the 2019 new Tory intake and symbolic of a new generation of Tories.

She made headlines when she arrived in Westminster as the new MP for the hitherto Labour stronghold of Bishop Auckland in County Durham, at the age of just 26.

By then she had already married a man 35 years her senior. She appeared on Channel 4 show Bride and Prejudice with Hull Tory councillor John Fareham discussing their age gap, but she announced they were divorcing in 2019.

After her victory over former minister Helen Goodman, she became the first Tory to hold Bushop Aukland since it was created in 1885

She received support on the campaign trail from Mr Johnson’s then girlfriend Carrie, who said politics was about helping people ‘get their benefits claim through, getting a pothole filled’.

The former computer game shop worker admitted the ‘poster girl thing’ was probably due to her tragic backstory and her ‘slightly unusual demographics’. But she added: ‘I just want to get stuff done.’

Carrie Symonds tweeted her congratulations after her victory, saying she was thrilled to hear her friend had become the first Conservative MP for Bishop Auckland. ‘She will be fantastic,’ she wrote.

The pair both own rescue dogs and a photo posted on social media by Davison in 2019 saw the pals campaigning with Symonds’ Jack Russell cross Dilyn and Davison’s terrier cross Carter. At the time, Davison posted the snap to her followers with the caption #ToryGirlSquad. 

It remains to be seen whether that has been affected by her  alleged links to defenestrate the PM.

Ms Davison was born in Hull and studied politics at the city’s university before spending a year as an aide to Jacob Rees-Mogg. 

She was just a young teenager when she learned her father Dominic had been killed by a single blow to the head in the pub.

She has since campaigned to change the law to bring in tougher punishment for such one-hit attacks. 

Ms Davison, a Tory winner last night in a Co Durham seat which has never elected a Conservative MP, last year recalled how she sat in a hospital waiting room as doctors battled for 45 minutes to save her father’s life.

‘I can still picture it. I can tell you what the colour the walls were and everything,’ she said. ‘They [the doctors] stopped and I went to see my dad’s body, which is not something you expect to do at such a young age.’

In October she came out as bisexual –  the first female Tory to do so publicly – and admitted she did not consider it to be ‘a big deal’.  

She told GB News: ‘If anyone were to explicitly ask me, I certainly wouldn’t try and hide it because I don’t think it’s anything to be ashamed of.

‘The reason I haven’t done a kind of, “By the way, guys”, is because I don’t want being bi to be considered a big deal. 

‘If I did a very public kind of coming-out parade, that would be me saying there’s something really unusual about this and trying to make a big deal of it when to me it’s not. It’s just part of who I am.’

The move against Mr Johnson is thought to have begun on Tuesday when around 20 of the plotters gathered in the Commons office of MP Alicia Kearns. 

It is Ms Kearns’ Melton Mowbray constituency which gave the plot its moniker. 

The MPs apparently discussed tactics for how to get rid of Mr Johnson, with a secret ballot revealing around half had already submitted letters of no confidence to Sir Graham Brady, the chairman of the Tory 1922 Committee.

The MPs were said to have concluded that the Partygate row was ‘terminal’ for the PM and discussed sending in their letters en masse to force a contest.

The bid to get rid of Mr Johnson appears to have stalled as Westminster waits for senior Whitehall official Sue Gray to publish her report into the parties. 

Ms Davison gave an interview to The Northern Echo newspaper in which she said that ‘the first thing I knew about me leading a coup’ was when she read about the claims in the press. 

She tweeted a link to the article and said: ‘For the many people giving me grief over so called pork pie plots, here’s what I had to say. 

‘Short version: No, I’m not leading a coup.’  

She told the newspaper: ‘I also was surprised to learn today that I was apparently planning to defect to the Labour Party, something else that is totally fabricated and, as a proud Conservative, something I would never do.

‘Frankly, I’m very disappointed that a colleague would brief out against me in this way, but it is a strange time in politics.’ 

Ms Davison said that she is ‘incredibly angry about the Downing Street parties and the Prime Minister’s response’.

She said that she has had a ‘number of conversations with colleagues about this’ but the suggestion that she was leading a ‘coup’ was ‘bonkers’. 

It came as Labour called for an investigation into the claims made by Mr Wragg. 

Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner said Mr Wragg – who has been heavily critical of Mr Johnson and previously called for him to quit – had highlighted ‘grave and shocking accusations of bullying, blackmail, and misuse of public money’ that ‘must be investigated thoroughly’. 

Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle said in the chamber that he was not aware of any details, but his ‘general observation’ was that government members were not ‘above the criminal law’ and attempting to ‘intimidate’ an MP would be a contempt of Parliament.

A Number 10 spokesman said: ‘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.’ 

Heavy tactics by government whips are notorious at Westminster, and allegations have surfaced during the latest furore about the behaviour of supposed rebels. 

Mr Wakeford was claimed to have been pushed ‘over the edge’ when he was hauled in and threatened with having the boundaries of his seat redrawn if he went against the PM. 

The dramatic intervention by Mr Wragg came as a poll suggested Mr Johnson’s popularity ratings have sunk to a similar level as Jeremy Corbyn before the 2019 general election, while Rishi Sunak is being seen more favourably.  

Health Secretary Sajid Javid conceded today that Mr Johnson has been ‘damaged’, despite the immediate threat receding after the defection and extraordinary attack from veteran David Davis at PMQs yesterday.

Steve Baker, one of the leading rebels against Theresa May, insisted today that he would not be ‘organising’ against Mr Johnson – but said he thought it looks like ‘checkmate’.

He told the BBC’s Political Thinking podcast: ‘Honestly, at the moment, I’m looking to the cabinet for leadership.

‘At the moment, I’m afraid it does look like checkmate – but whether he can save himself, we’ll see’.    

Restive MPs have warned that Mr Johnson has only been given a stay of execution, with many holding off on deciding whether to send no-confidence letters to the chair of the powerful 1922 committee until after an inquiry by top civil servant Sue Gray reports.

There are claims that while Ms Gray will not directly criticise Mr Johnson it could paint a very grim picture of his Downing Street operation.

‘It’s not going to be as good as people think,’ a government source told the Times.

‘She’s genuinely struggling to reconcile the Prime Minister’s claim that this was a work event with what she’s been hearing from other people. It’s very difficult for her.’

The dramatic intervention came as a poll suggested Mr Johnson’s popularity ratings have sunk to a similar level as Jeremy Corbyn before the 2019 general election, while Rishi Sunak is being seen more favourably

Christian Wakeford, the former Tory MP to defected to Labour yesterday, claimed he was threatened with the withdrawal of funding for a school in his Bury South constituency if he voted against the Government

David Davis warned the Tory Party is ‘dying a death of 1,000 cuts’ and faces a ‘year of agony’ if it does not act swiftly to oust Boris Johnson over allegations of rule-breaking parties in Downing Street

In a round of interviews this morning, Mr Javid made little effort to varnish the challenge faced by the PM.

‘It is damaging, of course it is,’ the Health Secretary told Sky News.

Mr Javid said ‘there were some parties’ and people were ‘right to be angry’, insisting those who broke the rules should be ‘disciplined’. He singled out the leaving bashes in Downing Street on the eve of Prince Philip’s funeral last April as ‘wrong in every single way’.

He also stated bluntly that if Mr Johnson is found to have broken the law he will have to go.

‘The Ministerial Code is very clear. If any minister from the Prime Minister down breaks the law, of course they shouldn’t continue to serve as a minister,’ he said.

‘What I have just said is a general rule that applies to everyone. There is no exception to that rule.’    

Responding to the statement from Mr Wragg, Ms Rayner said: ‘These are grave and shocking accusations of bullying, blackmail, and misuse of public money and must be investigated thoroughly.

‘The idea that areas of our country will be starved of funding because their MPs don’t fall into line to prop up this failing Prime Minister is disgusting.’

As the Downing Street machine finally cranked into gear yesterday, No10 said Mr Johnson will fight any no-confidence vote launched against him and insisted he expects to fight the next general election.

He has been personally meeting wavering MPs in a bid to shore up support on his back benches. 

Tory whips yesterday launched a concerted drive to crush the Pork Pie Plot. The plotters suggested that by 5pm yesterday the target of 54 letters needed to force a vote of no confidence in the PM would be passed. But the deadline came and went.

One Cabinet loyalist last night said the enormity of the plot was giving wavering MPs pause for thought.

‘The sight of one of your own crossing the floor to join Labour reminds people how high the stakes are,’ the source said. 

‘People are also having to face the question of what happens next. There is not a Boris figure to rally round who would do better electorally.’ 

Andrew Percy, Brigg and Goole MP, told BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme: ‘It’s kind of made people a bit more relaxed, it’s calmed nerves.

‘I think people have recognised that actually this constant navel gazing and internal debating is only to the advantage of our political opponents.

‘The Prime Minister is probably thanking Christian for what he did because it’s made a lot of people think again, think twice.’