Conservative MP Julian Knight has whip removed ‘with immediate effect’ after complaint made to police
THE Tories have removed the whip from MP Julian Knight after a complaint was made to the Metropolitan Police, the party has said.
Mr Knight no longer sits in the House of Commons as a Conservative, after the complaint was made on Wednesday.
The MP is the chairman of the Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee and has represented Solihull in the West Midlands since 2015.
A spokeswoman for Chief Whip Simon Hart said: “Following a complaint made to the Metropolitan Police this evening, we have removed the whip from Julian Knight MP with immediate effect.”
She declined to comment on the nature of the complaint now it is under investigation.
Mr Knight becomes the fifth MP to currently have the Conservative whip removed.
They include Matt Hancock, who had the whip removed from him after abandoning the Commons to go on I’m A Celebrity.
It comes on the same day that a senior Labour MP had the whip suspended after a complaint was lodged against him.
Conor McGinn, the MP for St Helens North in Merseyside since 2015, will also have his party membership withdrawn while the matter is investigated, it is understood.
He said he was confident the complaint, which has not been made public, was “entirely unfounded”.
McGinn is seen as an ally of party leader Sir Keir Starmer, working on election campaigns and part of the team credited with strong results in May’s local polls.
Meanwhile Baroness Michelle Mone also had the Tory whip removed amid a crime probe into £200m worth of PPE contracts.
The bra tycoon is being investigated by the House of Lords sleaze watchdog over claims she pressured ministers during the pandemic to award government contracts to PPE Medpro, a firm she allegedly has links to.