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Sex text shame Tory MP has whip restored hours before key vote on PM’s future

MPs have reacted with fury after a Theresa May loyalist who was stripped of the Tory whip after bombarding two young women with lewd text messages had it restored hours before the crucial confidence vote.

Married father Andrew Griffiths, 48, also resigned as small business minister in July after it was revealed he had sent 2,000 sexual texts to barmaid Imogen Treharne and a friend in just 21 days, weeks after the birth of his first child.

The Burton and Uttoxeter MP, who is a former chief of staff to Mrs May, told his local paper he would be supporting the Prime Minister in Wednesday’s vote.

It prompted a furious reaction from female Labour MPs including shadow women and equalities minister Dawn Butler, who said: “How can Theresa May call herself a feminist when she lets an MP who was suspended for sexual harassment back into the Conservative Party to vote for her in the leadership challenge?

“This is a betrayal of women.”

Fellow Labour MP Jess Phillips added: “They said it would be different.

“They said we won’t let patronage and power change our minds where wrongdoing occurred. They said we won’t protect our mates.

“They lied, they all lied. Same old same old.”

The restoration of the whip to Mr Griffiths and fellow former suspendee Charlie Elphicke, the MP for Dover, increased the number of Tory MPs to 317, meaning that Mrs May now needs 159 votes – half of the parliamentary party plus one – to secure her position.

On Wednesday he told the Derby Telegraph why he was backing the Prime Minister in the confidence vote, saying: “Theresa May has shown huge determination and bravery in negotiating and arguing for her deal.

“I believe she remains the best person to deliver the Brexit people in Burton and Uttoxeter voted for, and I will be supporting her in tonight’s ballot.”

Last month Mr Griffiths told the Sunday Times that he had been left “on the verge of suicide” and that his actions had been the culmination of decades of mental health problems, sparked by being sexually abused by an older boy when he was aged eight, something he never revealed to his parents.

The Burton and Uttoxeter MP told the paper the messages he sent the pair – which included referring to himself as “Daddy” and asking for explicit photos – had “reduced me to tears” when he reread them.