Brian Binley, Tory MP, Says David Cameron Is The Lib Dems' 'Chamber-Maid', In Latest Backbench Attack

'Cameron Is The Lib Dems' Chamber Maid'

The prime minister has become little more than the "chamber-maid" for the Liberal Democrats, Tory MP Brian Binley has said in the latest outburst against David Cameron's leadership by a member of his own party.

Writing on his blog on Wednesday, the MP for Northampton South, said Cameron has been "run ragged" by Nick Clegg and should start listening to Tory backbenchers.

"It may have been right to create a coalition after the election, but the current set-up isn’t working," Binley writes.

"The prime minister and his most enthusiastic disciples have allowed their appetite for indulging the infantile behaviour of their coalition partners to get the better of them.

"The LibDem minority has run ragged over the government in a manner not remotely justified by the level of their electoral support.

He adds: "When will the leadership wake up to their responsibility as the leading partner? Allowing the LibDems to have their way in a hopeless effort to avert yet another puerile tantrum, whilst at the same time ignoring the pressing needs of an economy struggling to raise itself from base camp, does nothing to engender good will from those who pay the price."

"The country needs a full-time prime minister and not a chamber-maid for a marginal, irrelevant pressure group who have got him in a virtual arm-lock with a constant stream of threats to abandon ship," he writes.

Binley, who has perviously criticised coalition policies including on Europe, gay marriage, the now dead Lords reform said the impending reshuffle should be seen as an opportunity to do more than just "rearrange the deck-chairs on the Titanic".

He said that the party leadership had created "toxicity through grubby politicking and a wilful disregard for the party's traditional values".

Binley is not the only Tory backbencher who is unhappy at the direction of the government and critics are likely to grow louder as the party conference season approaches.

Yesterday senior Tory backbencher Tim Yeo attacked the prime minister for opposing the expansion of Heathrow, challenging him to show wether he was "man or mouse".

While London Mayor Boris Johnson recently criticised Cameron for "pussyfooting" around on creating growth in the UK economy.

In the past the prime minister has also been ridiculed as an "arrogant posh boy" by Tory MP Nadine Dorries while Stewart Jackson questioned what the point of the coalition was "other than to keep Cameron in No 10 at any cost?"

Conor Burns, who resigned as a ministerial aide over Lords reform, told the Spectator earlier this month that some Tory MPs "now fear that people are more interested in leading the coalition than leading the party they were elected to lead".

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