A senior MP has branded Boris Johnson’s government “petty” and “imperious” after she was given two weeks by Tory whips to clear out her office — despite telling them that a close relative was gravely ill.



Sarah Wollaston, who defected from the Conservatives earlier this year, also accused government whip Mike Freer of entering her office without permission while she was out.

Wollaston said it was part of a “vindictive” campaign by Johnson’s team to undermine her role in Parliament, where she serves as chair of both the health select committee and the powerful liaison committee, which holds the prime minister to account.

A former doctor, Wollaston served as Conservative MP between 2010 and February of this year, when she defected to the Independent Group. She later quit the newly formed party and now sits as an independent MP.

Allocation of MPs’ offices is in the control of party whips, but Wollaston said the government under Theresa May never sought to take her office back.

However, within a week of Johnson's becoming PM, his team is demanding that she clear out within two weeks. She has instead been allocated a smaller office nearby which, she claims, will make it far more difficult to carry out her parliamentary business.