Shrewsbury MP Daniel Kawczynski continues to support Boris Johnson
The MP for Shrewsbury and Atcham recalled the exchange while speaking to Colin Murray on his BBC Radio 5 Live show on Tuesday night.
Mr Kawczynski was a guest on the night the first group of ministers, led by Chancellor Rishi Sunak and Health Secretary Sajid Javid, resigned from the government.
In a spirited debate, Mr Murray cited Theo Clarke, when she quit as trade envoy to Kenya, who cited the decision to promote Chris Pincher to deputy chief whip as the main reason for her resignation.
Mr Pincher was suspended from the Conservatives last week after he was accused of groping two men. The prime minister has since been forced to apologize for his handling of the row after it emerged he had forgotten he had been told about previous allegations of “inappropriate” behavior back in 2019.
In response to the host’s suggestion that he was asking Ms Clarke to believe the Prime Minister’s claim that he had forgotten he had been told about the allegations, Mr Kawczynski responded by recalling a trip to an electrical shop in Meole Brace, Shrewsbury .
He said: “When I was in Currys in Shrewsbury on Saturday buying a new vacuum cleaner, I had three staff in that building come up to me and say, ‘You need to stand next to Boris, you need to back off Boris’.
“I’ve never had people come up to me in an electronics store and ask me to support another prime minister that I’ve come across.
“So if three people came to you and told you not to support him and ask him to resign, would you do it on the basis of three employees at Currys?” the presenter replied. “I mean, come on.
Mr Kawczynski defended himself, adding: “It really happened, it’s not nonsense. I pass on the story”
Asked if he was digressing from the subject of Ms Clarke’s resignation, the Shrewsbury MP replied: “I tell you a story that in my sequence on Saturday when I wasn’t doing my role as an MP but I happened to be in Currys in Shrewsbury to buy a new vacuum cleaner, but people accidentally recognized me as a local MP and came up to me and said ‘please bring Boris back’. That’s the truth.
“Why were you so amazed and angry that I related an incident that happened to me in my constituency?”
Mr Murray told him it was because he was talking about “three people who sold you a vacuum cleaner over a specific question about the reasons why an MP withdrew his support for the Prime Minister”.
“These are good, hard-working people who work in my constituency, constituents, not a journalist or radio commentator who is obviously trying to paint a negative image of the Prime Minister,” Mr Kawczynski.
After Mr Murray revealed that a YouGuv poll showed 69 per cent of people thought Mr Johnson should resign, including 54 per cent of Tory voters polled, the Shropshire MP said polls for Margaret Thatcher they were often worse during her first term.
This includes Montgomeryshire MP Craig Williams, who resigned as Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Chancellor.
In his letter, Mr Williams said he was “extremely proud” of the work done amid Covid, the war in Europe and cost of living pressures.
However, he said: “Following the recent vote of confidence I have given you my support, with one final benefit of the doubt. I believed it was right to draw a line under previous events and focus on restoring public confidence and focusing on delivering good policies.
“Recently, it has become clear that this is becoming impossible.
“It is therefore with deep regret that I resign from your government.
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