Pressure has continued to mount on Boris Johnson’s leadership over the fallout from Partygate row after more Conservative MPs turned against him and polls indicated landslide losses in key seats in a general election.
The prime minister faced a ministerial resignation and letters of no confidence yesterday, following a wave of Conservative MPs demanding his resignation.
Sir Bob Neill and Alicia Kearns said Johnson did not have their support after Sue Gray’s report detailed “unacceptable behaviour” at issue 10, raising to seven the number of Conservative MPs calling for Johnson’s resignation since the report was published. on Wednesday.
His remarks followed the resignation of Eastleigh MP Paul Holmes as ministerial assistant to Priti Patel, blaming a “toxic culture” in government.
Meanwhile, YouGov published a model that suggested the party would lose all but three of its 88 “battleground” seats if elections were held tomorrow.
Losses would include the Prime Minister’s own seat of Uxbridge and South Ruislip, as well as vital ‘Red Wall’ constituencies.
The ‘red wall’ seats Wakefield, where there is an upcoming by-election, Burnley, Blyth Valley, Leigh and Stoke-on-Trent North would all fall to Labour.
And Sir Keir Starmer’s party would also wipe out fringe Conservative seats in London and the South, the model suggested based on a poll of 15,045 voters in England and 2,086 in Wales.
Sir Bob, a former lawyer and Conservative MP for Bromley and Chislehurst since 2006, said he had submitted a letter of censure after he “listened carefully to the explanations” Johnson gave and “did not find his claims credible”.
He said the details of the report had exposed “a totally unacceptable pattern of behaviour”. […] including breaking rules that caused real pain and hardship for many.”
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Mrs Kearns, who had previously said she did not support Johnson, confirmed her position remained the same, saying the “protracted affair” had put “law-abiding Conservatives to shame”.
Announcing his resignation as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Mrs Patel, Mr Holmes said the “shocking” details of the dispute had undermined his work for constituents in Eastleigh, Hampshire.
Holmes stopped short of demanding the prime minister’s resignation, but said: “I am distressed that this work on his behalf has been clouded by the toxic culture that seemed to have permeated Number 10.”
Five other Conservative MPs had already publicly called for Johnson’s resignation since the report exposed the party culture at Number 10 during the strict Covid-19 lockdowns.
Former Minister Stephen Hammond said he “cannot and will not defend the indefensible” and indicated that he had also sent a letter of censure to the Conservative 1922 Committee.
MPs David Simmonds, John Baron and Julian Sturdy had already called for Johnson’s resignation. Angela Richardson, who resigned as parliamentary private secretary earlier this year, said she would have resigned had she been in Johnson’s job.
A total of 54 letters need to be sent for a vote of confidence in Mr. Johnson’s leadership to take place. Eleven MPs have said they sent letters, and more than a dozen others have said Johnson should go.
But a defiant Mr Johnson insisted he was still confident he had enough support in his party. When asked, on a visit to Stockton-on-Tees, if he felt he had the backing of his party, he said: “Yes, but I think I gave some pretty classic and exhaustive answers on that whole subject the other day in the House. . of the Commons and then at a subsequent press conference.”
Meanwhile, Labor leader Sir Keir looked set to be cleared by a police investigation into whether he breached lockdown rules when he was photographed drinking a beer at an election office last year.
According to the daily mailsources have said his Durham police are “highly unlikely” to fine Sir Keir, given the force had not punished former No. 10 Assessor Dominic Cummings for his trip to the area in the first lockdown.
Reference-inews.co.uk