You’ll need a tank division to drag me out of No 10: Johnson

Downing Street believes the Prime Minister is in ‘the danger zone’ and that the threshold for calling a vote could soon be reached.

Boris Johnson, in Blackpool last week, is determined to cling to power. Picture: AFP

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has told allies he is determined to cling on to power as he prepares to face a confidence vote as soon as this week.

Friends say Mr Johnson is determined to stay in No. 10.

“He’s making very clear that they’ll have to send a Panzer division to get him out of there,” one senior adviser said.

Downing Street believes Mr Johnson is in “the danger zone” and that the threshold for calling a vote – letters from 54 MPs to the chair of the 1922 Committee of Tory backbenchers – could soon be reached.

Members of Mr Johnson’s shadow whipping operation believe at least 35 have submitted letters and the figure could be as high as 45.

Some MPs think it may be more than 50.

Some ministers have turned on Chancellor Rishi Sunak, accusing him of plotting against Mr Johnson and saying he should be sacked for disloyalty.

“Rishi has been far too blatant this week,” one said. “He’s a bit like a five-year-old boy who tells the girl he likes to ‘please, please’ not kiss him. He appears to be trying to hasten the PM’s departure before things get properly shit with the economy.”

Another said colleagues had been “flabbergasted” by Mr Sunak’s behaviour and “blatant plotting … He has behaved in a childish, immature and petulant way. No one will ever elect someone so duplicitous as leader.”

It comes after Mr Sunak rebuked Mr Johnson for a personal attack on Labour leader Keir Starmer. Mr Johnson had claimed Sir Keir failed to prosecute pedophile Jimmy Savile when he was director of public prosecutions for England.

In spite of Mr Johnson’s determination to hang on, three sources say Carrie Johnson has grown weary of the pressure on her, her husband and their children, and has privately voiced the view that it might be better if he were to quit.

The pressure will only intensify this week with the publication of extracts from a biography of the Prime Minister’s wife.

The book, funded by Tory peer Michael Ashcroft, will make ­colourful claims about the extent of Ms Johnson’s influence over Downing Street policy and staff.

Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries, the Prime Minister’s biggest supporter in cabinet, has accused Mr Johnson’s political opponents of waging a toxic briefing war against his wife in an effort to ­topple his premiership.

Allies accuse Dominic Cummings – Mr Johnson’s former chief adviser, who left Downing Street in November 2020 after losing a power struggle with Ms Johnson – and other former No. 10 officials of planting stories about her in Lord Ashcroft’s book.

Ms Dorries said: “This book is based on a tissue of lies provided by vengeful and mendacious men who were once employees in No. 10, and is an insight into their warped minds. If it ever sees the light of day, it should be filed under fiction. Carrie had a baby only weeks ago and the obsessive way in which she is hounded is bordering on sinister.”

Mr Johnson has announced plans to overhaul his top team after the departure of five of his most senior aides within 24 hours last week.

Mr Sunak’s operation has been accused of leaking a photograph of the Johnsons at an outdoor gathering of 17 people on May 15, 2020, at the height of the lockdown. The picture, being investigated by police, shows staff drinking wine and eating cheese.

“It’s no surprise that the photograph of people drinking wine in the Downing Street garden appears to have been taken from Rishi’s office window,” a cabinet minister said.

However, the main rift in the cabinet appears to have been caused by fears Mr Sunak is on “leadership manoeuvres”.

“This is a team sport and we live or die together, and he is not playing the game … He has been very high-handed,” a senior cabinet minister said.

The backlash appears to have spread to the backbenches, with one veteran Conservative MP comparing Mr Sunak to Michael Heseltine, criticised by colleagues for openly attacking Margaret Thatcher towards the end of her premiership.

“Everyone knows, after what happened to Michael Heseltine, that he who wields the knife never wears the crown,” the MP said.

Mr Sunak’s supporters are understood to be hatching a coronation plot for any Tory leadership contest. They are confident he can knock out his main rival, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, before the final round.

The Daily Mirror reported that Scotland Yard has a photograph of Mr Johnson holding a can of a beer at his lockdown 56th birthday party in June 2020. Mr Johnson is pictured standing next to Mr Sunak, who is holding a soft drink, in No. 10’s Cabinet Room, sources told the newspaper.

The Sunday Times