Crewe and Nantwich MP Dr Kieran Mullan has confirmed he “could not support the Prime Minister” in last night’s confidence vote.
Boris Johnson won the vote, but more than 40% of his Tory MPs voted to remove him, which many feel has left him in a precarious position.
The vote came after more than 54 letters of “no confidence” were submitted to Sir Graham Brady by Tory MPs, following the Sue Gray report into the “Partygate” scandal.
Dr Mullan was one of 148 Tory MPs who voted to oust Johnson in light of the scandal. But 211 voted to keep him.
Today, Dr Mullan said: “I came to Parliament determined to get improvements in our Justice system.
“This comes from growing up with a dad as policeman and volunteering as a policeman myself.
“We all come to Parliament with different backgrounds and experiences and a strong sense of what is important to us.
“No one is perfect. I know lots of people broke the rules.
“But people do and should expect better from a Prime Minister and the people working for him. If you are in charge the buck stops with you.
“I don’t see how I could carry on making the case for us being tougher on crime if I allowed what happened to go unaccounted for.
“And if you are on TV on an almost weekly basis telling people to behave a certain way and yet the people working for you yards away are breaking the rules and bragging about getting away with it privately, then you have to carry the can for that.
“I also can’t forget the family members I spoke to when I volunteered on the frontline during the pandemic.
“The people I personally had to tell couldn’t come and see their much loved relatives in hospital. I have to keep faith with them.
“For that reason the Prime Minister lost my support some time ago and I could not support him in the vote last night.
“I had no interest in being dragged into an ongoing public row about this.
“I think most people want me focusing on doing my job of delivering for them.
“I just did what I thought needed to be done and got on with my job of trying to deliver for residents.
“I know many people will think this is not proportionate. It is right we have delivered on the big issues like the vaccine rollout, support during the lockdowns, Ukraine and more.
“And of course the leader of the opposition is a complete hypocrite-he called on the PM to resign simply for being under investigation, but hasn’t done the same now it’s happened to him.
“Labour MPs lecture us about the PM not being fit when they were all very happy to make Jeremy Corbyn PM-a man who couldn’t even side with this country when Putin ran a chemical weapons attack on us that put a policeman in hospital and killed a British citizen.
“But ultimately I have to do what I feel is right and what I think is best for the country and I am rightly accountable to every single one of you at the next election if you don’t agree.
“Now the vote is over I will get back to focusing on my job of getting things done for all of you.”
Pity you neglected what we pay you for – representing your constituents as an MP – to go back to being a doctor and thus allowed Bojo and Jenrick to ride roughshod over local planning democracy. You lost my support sometime ago too, cant wait until I get my vote.
right decision hes out of touch now with the eelctorate.
Quite right, stand by your own morals and conscience will win the day, too many look the other way and ignore the gradual drain on values that we regard so highly. Well done