‘I hope it was worth it’: Sir Charles Walker blames MPs for voting Truss in

Sir Charles Walker erupted at Liz Truss’s supporters for securing her position as Prime Minister. He said the damage it has caused is “extraordinary”. He told the BBC: “This is an absolute disgrace.

As a Tory MP of 17 years, never been a minister and has got on with it loyally most of the time, I think it’s a shambles and a disgrace.

“I’m livid and I really shouldn’t say this but I hope all of those people who put Liz Truss on No10, I hope it was worth it.

“I hope it was worth it for the ministerial red box, I hope it was worth it to sit around the cabinet table because the damage they have done to our party is extraordinary.”

Describing events in the House of Commons over the fracking vote, Sir Charles added: “I’ve really not seen anything like tonight.

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“What I understand is that we were on a confidence vote, which means if you voted against your government, you’d lose the whip because in essence, you were saying you had no confidence in the Government.

“Then at the despatch box, in the wind-up, the minister said it wasn’t a confidence vote, which created chaos in the division lobbies. There was then a sort of 20-minute delay between the vote happening and the result being announced, which by the way, wasn’t even close. The Government won it by nearly 100 votes. But I just think the whole thing is extraordinary. And somewhere in between this, the vote being called and the result being announced the chief whip resigned.

“But I just think the whole thing is extraordinary.”

He said he is leaving Parliament at the next general election voluntarily, adding: “Unless we get our act together and behave like grown-ups, I’m afraid many hundreds of my colleagues, perhaps 200, will be leaving at the behest of their electorate.”

More to follow…