- Security Minister Ben Wallace was named as being on Tory whip watch list
- But last night Mr Wallace protested his loyalty to Prime Minister Theresa May
- He said he is doing the job he loves and couldn’t be less interested in rows
An ally of Boris Johnson last night denied claims at Westminster that he was considering resigning to trigger a leadership contest against Theresa May.
Security Minister Ben Wallace, a former officer in the Scots Guards, was named by a senior party source as being ‘on a watch list’ held by Tory whips.
But last night Mr Wallace protested his loyalty to the Prime Minister, saying: ‘I am doing the job I love. Which in politics is rare. The rows are something I couldn’t be less interested in.’
Security Minister Ben Wallace, a former officer in the Scots Guards, was named by a senior party source as being ‘on a watch list’ held by Tory whips
When asked about the ‘watch list’, he said: ‘It isn’t the whips who believe that, I know for a fact. It is others.’
Another Minister on the whips’ watch list is Defence Minister Tobias Ellwood, who is understood to be frustrated at not being promoted to the Cabinet in Mrs May’s botched reshuffle last month.
He is angry at the Treasury over proposed defence cuts and sources say he has a ‘tense’ relationship with his Secretary of State, Gavin Williamson.
No 10 considered moving Ellwood in the reshuffle due to the ‘terrible personal chemistry’ between him and Mr Williamson.
But last night Mr Wallace protested his loyalty to the Prime Minister, saying: ‘I am doing the job I love. Which in politics is rare. The rows are something I couldn’t be less interested in.’
Now party figures fear Ellwood may be tempted to resign.
The 52-year-old, who was a captain in the Royal Green Jackets, became a national hero during last year’s terrorist attack on Parliament, when he gave mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to police officer Keith Palmer, who later died of his injuries.
Mr Ellwood told The Mail on Sunday: ‘Resign? Resign? At the very moment when there’s a duty to step forward? No. I’m donning my suit of armour, with the S of S [Secretary of State] for the mother of all battles with the Treasury.’