The prospect of a no-confidence vote in Boris Johnson’s leadership moved a step closer on Monday when two more Conservative MPs, including a former cabinet minister, called for him to go.
Jeremy Wright, a former culture secretary and attorney general, said rule-breaking in Downing Street during Covid-19 lockdown had done “real and lasting damage” not just to this government but to the authority of government more generally.
“That matters because it is sadly likely that a government will again need to ask the citizens of this country to follow rules it will be difficult to comply with and to make sacrifices which will be hard to bear, in order to serve or preserve the greater good. The collective consequences of those citizens declining to do so may again be severe,” he said in a statement.
“It now seems to me that the prime minister remaining in office will hinder those crucial objectives. I have therefore, with regret, concluded that, for the good of this and future governments, the prime minister should resign.”
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Elliot Colburn, who won the London seat of Carshalton and Wellington from the Liberal Democrats in 2019 by 629 votes, confirmed that he had sent a letter to the chairman of the backbench 1922 Committee calling for a vote of no confidence in Mr Johnson’s leadership. Fifty-four such letters are required to trigger a vote and only the committee’s chairman Graham Brady knows how many have been submitted already.
Wine, vomit and fighting: Can Johnson hang on despite Partygate revelations?
London Editor Denis Staunton explains what a newly-published report into illegal gatherings in UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson's home and office means for him and his Conservative government. Can Johnson finally outmanoeuvre this long-running scandal? What will it take for his MPs to turn on him? Has the affair damaged British politics and its ability to deal with a dire cost of living crisis?
Twenty-six Conservative MPs have called for the prime minister’s resignation and a further 10 have publicly criticised his leadership. The latest calls followed the publication last week of civil servant Sue Gray’s report on lockdown-breaking parties in Downing Street. Nickie Aiken, whose constituency of Westminster fell to Labour in this month’s local elections, said Mr Johnson should call a confidence vote himself.
“Sadly, I believe that the events in Downing Street have damaged the government and the Conservative Party. Many people have asked me whether I believe that the prime minister should stand down. I fear that the continued reporting and constant speculation will continue to damage both the government and the Conservative Party,” she wrote in a letter to constituents. “If I were in the same position, I would put myself forward to the Conservative Parliamentary Party for a vote of confidence, end this speculation in order to allow the government to continue to meet the challenges the country faces, especially the cost-of-living crisis.”
Labour has called for an investigation into leaked text messages that appear to show that Mr Johnson’s wife, Carrie, met at least two friends in the couple’s Downing Street flat on the evening of Mr Johnson’s birthday on June 19th, 2020 when indoor gatherings were forbidden. Downing Street declined to deny that such a gathering took place, prompting Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner to call for a full explanation of what happened.
“It appears that Number 10 has now stopped denying that another lockdown-breaking secret gathering took place in the Downing Street flat. Less than a week after the release of the Gray report, this raises serious questions about whether Downing Street has been caught lying yet again and why the event has not been investigated. The prime minister must come clean with the British people,” she said.
