Boris Johnson beefs up leadership team as fears of no-confidence vote mount
The British PM is using the group of lieutenants who helped him to win in 2019 to record the position of every Tory MP.
Boris Johnson has reinstated his Tory leadership team to save his prime ministership amid increasing concern across government that a no-confidence vote is inevitable.
Mr Johnson is using the group of ministerial lieutenants who helped him to win the leadership contest in 2019 to record the position of every Tory MP, with a spreadsheet detailing those who are loyal, wavering or determined to oust him.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps is playing a key role in the operation with three former whips and other loyalists to Mr Johnson. They began their work last week.
Mr Johnson spent much of the weekend in his study at Chequers, his official country residence, phoning Tory MPs who are wavering in an attempt to shore up his support.
Other cabinet ministers have been asked to do the same and are also expected to make public interventions on his behalf in coming days to defend his record as prime minister.
The extent of Mr Johnson’s preparations for a confidence vote reflects the belief of whips that it is now a case of “when, not if” Tory rebels submit the 54 letters of no-confidence needed to trigger a vote. Many Tory MPs have chosen to hold back until after Sue Gray, a senior civil servant who is investigating allegations of Downing Street parties, publishes her report this week.
There are concerns in No 10 that it could be more critical of the prime minister than expected, particularly over his claim that he believed a garden party he attended during the first lockdown to be a work event.
Martin Reynolds, the prime minister’s principal private secretary, is said to have given “candid” evidence to Ms Gray, which could prove pivotal to Mr Johnson’s future. “Reynolds is not willing to be the fall guy in all of this,” one government source said.
Mr Johnson is attempting to persuade his Australian former adviser Lynton Crosby to return to No 10. Dan Rosenfield, the prime minister chief of staff, is said to have told colleagues: “We might all need to fall on our swords here”.
And Ruth Davidson, the former leader of the Scottish Conservatives, said that Mr Johnson was “unfit for office”.
Mr Johnson’s team believe that at present they have the support of about 300 of the 359 Conservative MPs. In an attempt to limit the fallout from the Gray report, Mr Johnson will go the House of Commons on the day it is published and issue an apology to the nation.
He appears determined to continue as prime minister. He told one ally last week when discussing the prospect of a confidence vote: “Bring it on.”
The campaign to save Mr Johnson is understood to be separate from the government whips’ office that has been carrying out its own survey of MPs, although it meets frequently in the office of chief whip Mark Spencer.
Mr Shapps has revived the spreadsheet of MPs he produced in 2019, which was credited with playing a key role in Mr Johnson’s success in the leadership contest. “They are doing things the whips couldn’t do without arousing suspicion and panic,” a source said. “It’s not in place of the whips – there is some joined-up thinking going on.”
A significant majority of MPs are said to be professing loyalty to Mr Johnson, but there is uncertainty about their true intentions. A confidence vote is triggered if 54 MPs – 15 per cent of the parliamentary party – submit letters to the chairman of the backbench 1922 committee. There is concern among Johnson loyalists about 40 MPs on the left of the party who opposed Brexit and have largely been excluded since.
It was claimed Downing Street staff had taken part in a seven-hour drinking session on the eve of the Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral. The Daily Telegraph said it had obtained text messages and photographs of two leaving parties last April 16, showing they carried on until 1am. Some of those present were said to have used a slide belonging to Mr Johnson’s son Wilfred
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