Getting rid of Boris means a general election, Tory MPs told

Boris Johnson’s allies warn any successor would have to call a general election if the PM is removed from office.

Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson leaves from 10 Downing Street. Picture: Tolga Akmen / AFP

Boris Johnson’s allies have warned Tory MPs that any successor would have to call a general election if the prime minister is removed from office.

Close supporters of the prime minister, including cabinet ministers, spent the weekend phoning round Conservative MPs to gauge the level of support for Johnson before the publication of Sue Gray’s report into parties during lockdowns in Downing Street.

The so-called Johnson support group is understood to be dividing MPs into three groups: those who are loyal to the prime minister, those who have turned against him and those who are wavering.

Yesterday about 70 Tory MPs backing Johnson, including five cabinet ministers, met remotely to take stock of the prime minister’s position.

Chris Pincher, a housing minister and former whip who is playing a leading role in the campaign, told the group that if Johnson is deposed, his successor is likely to need to call a general election sooner rather than later to legitimise their premiership. He highlighted the examples of Johnson and Theresa May.

More instability

“Chris was arguing that removing Boris would only lead to more instability and could cost MPs their seats,” one Tory MP said. “The message we were told to communicate was that his successor would need to call an election within months of taking office.”

Pincher also told loyal colleagues to highlight Johnson’s ability to win elections and argue that he made the right decisions on vaccines and coronavirus restrictions.

Cabinet ministers in the group include Nadine Dorries, the culture secretary, Nadhim Zahawi, the education secretary, and Priti Patel, the home secretary. Sources said that potential leadership candidates such as Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss, the foreign secretary, have been deliberately kept off the group.

One senior Tory MP, who was canvassed at the weekend, said MPs were being asked if they could be relied on to support Johnson and what he needed to do to regain their trust. He said it was being made clear that the prime minister was prepared to clear out his senior Downing Street team and do more to address the cost of living crisis, which MPs are increasingly concerned about.

Counter-productive

They added that while there were a “small number” of MPs who wanted Johnson removed regardless of Gray’s findings, the overall mood of the parliamentary party was moving towards support for the prime minister.

“I think there is the clear sense that getting rid of Boris now would be counter-productive,” they said. “It is going to lead to months of stasis at a time when there are real and pressing problems such as the cost of living and it is not clear that electing another leader would transform our fortunes.

“I think the view of most colleagues is that unless the Gray report reveals anything significantly new, this is not the time to be holding a leadership election.”

Among those staff members seen as candidates for removal are Martin Reynolds, Johnson’s principal private secretary, and Dan Rosenfield, his chief of staff. The Times revealed last week that the prime minister hopes that Sir Lynton Crosby, his former elections guru, and Lord Udny-Lister, a former adviser to Johnson in City Hall and Downing Street, can be persuaded to abandon careers in the private sector to help revive his leadership.

One Tory who has been publicly critical of the prime minister said that they had decided not to submit a letter despite being frustrated with the government’s handling of the party allegations. “There’s a lot of Boris- haters using this as an opportunity to settle scores,” they said.

Lying in wait

The message was echoed by a minister present at the meeting. “There are people who have simply never reconciled themselves to Boris being leader, to the fact that he won a huge majority and took us out of the EU,” they said. “They’ve been lying in wait waiting for a moment when he’s weak. And now when Gray reports they will try to spring a challenge on him.”

Under Tory party rules a confidence vote is triggered if 54 MPs — representing 15 per cent of the parliamentary party – submit letters of no confidence to the chairman of the 1922 Committee representing backbench Tory MPs.

To survive, Johnson technically only needs to win the support of a majority of his colleagues. However, Tory MPs say that in reality, Johnson would need to limit any rebellion to less than the 117 MPs who voted against Theresa May in 2018 to be secure.

One senior Conservative questioned Sunak’s loyalty to Johnson after the chancellor was said to have referred to the forthcoming rise in national insurance as the “prime minister’s tax”.

“It’s awful,” they said. “He’s deliberately trying to dump on Boris at the worst possible time.

“The PM can survive this, but he needs to fix his operation in No 10. It’s a total mess.”

A Treasury source categorically denied that Sunak had used the phrase.

— with George Grylls and Henry Zeffman

The Times