Calls for Boris Johnson to quit grow louder

The backbenchers from different generations and wings of the party took the number publicly demanding his departure to 13.

Boris Johnson during prime minister's questions on Wednesday. Picture: AFP

Five Conservative MPs called for Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s resignation in just over 24 hours amid growing unrest at his handling of the Downing Street parties saga.

A clutch of backbenchers from different generations and various wings of the party took the total number of Mr Johnson’s own MPs publicly demanding his departure to 13.

At least a further five, including members of the government, are considering submitting letters of no confidence in the coming days, The Times has learnt. While it is not thought to be a co-ordinated plot, momentum is growing behind a challenge.

If Graham Brady, the chairman of the 1922 Committee of Conservative backbenchers, receives 54 letters then Mr Johnson will face a confidence vote among his parliamentary party. While most MPs believe the present tally is far short of that number, the steady drip of new letters shows that Mr Johnson has failed to stem the unease over the issue in Conservative ranks.

Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries, who is Mr Johnson’s most passionate defender, accused the rebels of selfishness. She wrote on Twitter: “The defining mission of the PM and this government is to level up the whole of the UK. On the very day we are setting out steps to make this happen, a handful of egos want to make it all about them. It’s selfish, doing Labour’s work and it’s really not helping their constituents.”

Shortly after 5pm on Wednesday (AEDT), Gary Streeter, the MP for South West Devon, said he had submitted a letter of no confidence in Mr Johnson’s leadership. On his constituency website Sir Gary said that he had wanted to wait for senior civil servant Sue Gray’s report into the parties to be published before making a decision. “I cannot reconcile the pain and sacrifice of the vast majority of the British public during lockdown with the attitude and activities of those working in Downing Street,” he said.

Sir Gary, 66, who was first elected to the House of Commons in 1992, was a minister under John Major and in William Hague’s shadow cabinet but has sat on the back benches since 2004. His intervention came two hours after Anthony Mangnall, who was elected as MP for the Devon seat of Totnes in 2019, went public. Mr Mangnall, 32, said: “Standards in public life matter. At this time I can no longer support the PM. His actions and mistruths are overshadowing the extraordinary work of so many excellent ministers and colleagues. I have submitted a letter of no confidence.”

Earlier Tobias Ellwood, a former minister elected in 2005 who is chairman of the defence select committee, called for Mr Johnson’s resignation. “We’re back in this holding pattern, waiting for another announcement, with the prospect of a steady drip of stories,” he told Sky News. “This is just horrible for all MPs to continuously have to defend this to the British public.

“I don’t think the prime minister realises how worried colleagues are in every corner of the party that this is all going only one way, and will invariably slide towards a very ugly place. I believe it’s time for the prime minister to take a grip of this – he himself should call a vote of confidence rather than waiting for the inevitable 54 letters to be eventually submitted. It’s time to resolve this so the party can get back to governing.”

The trio followed Peter Aldous, 60, who was elected in 2010, and Charles Walker, 54, a former acting chairman of the 1922 Committee from the 2005 intake, who called for Mr Johnson’s resignation late on Tuesday. Their concerns are shared by many Tory MPs in the 40-strong One Nation group, but there are also fears among Mr Johnson’s supporters that anger is seeping out of less predictable parts of the parliamentary party.

William Wragg, 34, the MP for Hazel Grove in Greater Manchester since 2015, said: “I sadly think that the prime minister’s position is untenable and I don’t believe it should be left to the findings of a civil servant to determine the future of the prime minister and indeed who governs this country. It is for the Conservative Party, if not the prime minister, to make that decision.”

Roger Gale, 78, the MP for the Kent seat of North Thanet, said: “He’s done a good job delivering certain things, but I think we’ve now got to the stage where frankly we have to find another leader.”

The Times