Senior Tories launch ‘Save Boris’ fightback campaign as calls for confidence vote pile up

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Tory whips rang round MPs yesterday to shore up support for Mr Johnson following claims the crunch vote could be triggered next week. The Prime Minister is understood to have called a number of potential rebels to urge them to stay local.

Efforts to rally support for Mr Johnson intensified last night after Carlisle MP John Stevenson yesterday became the latest Conservative backbencher to submit a letter calling for a confidence vote.

Former Cabinet minister Dame Andrea Leadsom also hit out at “failures of leadership” in Downing Street but stopped short of demanding the Prime Minister’s resignation.

One leading rebel last night claimed the threshold of 54 letters to the party’s ruling backbench committee needed to trigger a confidence vote will be reached by next week.

“I would not be surprised to find well over 54 letters will be there by Monday,” the rebel MP said.

He added: “Boris is like gangrene, infecting the whole party. The problem needs to be cut out.”

Downing Street insiders insist the Prime Minister is fully focused on his job and is not distracted by the leadership speculation.

In a statement posted on social media, Mr Stevenson expressed disappointment that Mr Johnson had not himself called for a confidence vote to “draw a line” under the row about covid lockdown breaching parties in Downing Street.

“Sadly, the Prime Minister appears unwilling to bring matters to a head and submit himself to such a vote,” he said.

“Therefore, the only option is for the Conservative MPs to facilitate a vote of confidence. I have already taken the appropriate action.”

In a letter to her constituents, Dame Andrea agreed with the findings of civil servant Sue Gray’s report into the lockdown breaches that there were “significant failures of leadership, both political and official, in No 10 and the Cabinet Office.”

The Tory MP for South Northamptonshire wrote: “Each of my Conservative MP colleagues and I must now decide individually on what the right course of action that will restore confidence in our Government.”

Former Tory leader Lord Hague predicted that a confidence vote could be held this month.

The Tory peer told Times Radio: “I think Boris Johnson is in real trouble here.”

He added: I think the Conservative Party will need to resolve this one way or another, because to be an effective party they either need to rally behind the Prime Minister they’ve got, or they need to decide to force him out.

“I think they’re moving towards either next week or around the end of June, they are moving towards having a ballot, it looks like that.”

Sir Graham Brady, the chairman of the Tory backbench 1922 Committee, stuck to his long-held refusal to disclose how many letters he had received calling for a confidence vote.

“It’s a confidential process and I’ll retain my discretion and say nothing more at the moment,” he said, adding that counting the letters was not his “regular pastime.”

Sir Iain Duncan Smith, another former Tory leader, urged the Prime Minister to cut tax and show the Government is delivering to survive in his job.

He told GB News: “The only thing you can do is to get on and try and make what you do relevant and try and persuade people…that you are actually making change, you’re getting things done.

“There is a real sense that we face this crisis over the cost of living which is affecting them – the Chancellor’s come up with a lot of money, which is very helpful.

“I think we need to lower the burden of taxation on the lower earners in the UK yet so there’s lots to be done.”

He added: “The trick is to get on with it. Focus on the job.”

Sir Iain said colleagues who may wish to see the downfall of Mr Johnson should hold fire until after this Platinum Jubilee celebrations.

“The polling tells me that the public is sick and tired of this and I don’t blame them, the issue was shocking.

“What happened in Downing Street, and we just got the Sue Gray report was a sort of collapse really in structure and discipline on civil servants as well as in the politicians.

“But this is her week. This is her majesty’s week. This is a remarkable period. No other monarch has reigned as long as this.”

Business Minister George Freeman admitted not knowing whether the PM would win a vote of no confidence.

“I just don’t know, I don’t know where backbench colleagues are,” he said.

Sir Bob Neill, a senior backbencher who last week revealed he had submitted a letter to Sir Graham calling for a confidence vote, said yesterday: “I took the view that it was in the party’s interest and actually the country’s interest for him to move on.”

Tory frontbencher Lord Parkinson said: “There’s an awful lot of speculation about the numbers of letters that go in and past experience shows, not just then but before, the only person that knows how many letters that have been sent in is the chairman of the 1922 Committee.

“It’s pretty pointless to speculate about the numbers before then, it’s a distraction from the work of Government and in Government we’re getting on with making sure that we grow the economy to help with the cost of living.”

He added: “It’s pointless speculating about something unless or until it happens.”

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