Wendy Morton says her resignation was refused by the ex-PM after a fateful vote on fracking.
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Former chief whip Wendy Morton handed in her resignation to Liz Truss after a chaotic vote that eventually led to the then-PM’s downfall, she has revealed.
Ms Truss refused to accept Ms Morton’s resignation, as she battled to hold her government together.
But the PM stepped down the following day, when it became clear that she had lost the confidence of her MPs.
It “was one of those nights that I will probably never forget”, Ms Morton told the BBC’s Politics Live.
As chief whip, it was her job to get Tory MPs to vote with the government – but many had refused to do so on the evening of 19 October because they opposed Ms Truss’s policy on fracking.
MPs had been told it amounted to a confidence vote in the government in an effort to get them in line.
But there was confusion over whether that was really the case and the disarray that followed, with claims Tory MPs were being bullied by ministers into backing the government, proved to be the beginning of the end for Ms Truss’s short-lived premiership.
Ms Morton – who was a key political ally of Ms Truss – told the BBC she had since “spent a lot of time reflecting on” the vote in October. She confirmed that it had been a confidence vote.
Speaking on the Politics Live programme, Ms Morton said she resigned as chief whip “on the basis that No 10 were interfering” in the vote.
“I feel so strongly about the integrity of the chief whip and the red lines that I have,” Ms Morton told the BBC. “But the prime minister would not accept my resignation so I continued.”
She said her conversation with Ms Truss was “robust but it was respectful”, adding: “I have spoken to her since.”
“We had coffee with her just the other week,” Ms Morton said.
Ms Truss’s premiership unravelled within 24 hours of the fateful vote, as a groundswell of Conservative MPs urged her to stand down.
Sir Graham Brady – the chairman of the 1922 committee of backbench Tory MPs – told the BBC he had decided to call Downing Street to tell Ms Truss her position was “unsustainable” following the “utter chaos” of the vote.
Confusion reigned after Labour brought a vote on whether MPs should get a say on the government’s fracking plans.
Conservative MPs were initially told the vote would be treated as a test of loyalty to the government – a motion of confidence – and if they did not oppose the Labour plan they could get kicked out of the parliamentary party.
Tory whips, who are responsible for discipline in the parliamentary party, ordered their MPs to vote against the motion.
But then, just minutes before the vote, climate minister Graham Stuart rowed back on this at the despatch box, where he suggested it was not a vote of confidence.
Jacob Rees-Mogg – who was business secretary at the time – blamed the confusion on “a junior official at 10 Downing Street [who] sent a message through to the front bench that it was not a vote of confidence and nobody else was aware of that”.
Chaotic scenes in the voting lobby followed, as whips tried to get Tory MPs to oppose the Labour motion.
Labour MP Chris Bryant said what he saw was “clear bullying”, and House of Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle ordered an investigation into the incident.
Mr Hoyle said while “the atmosphere was tense”, there was no evidence “of any bullying or undue influence placed on other members”.