At it again, ego who’s been thorn in side of every PM since Major
TORIES turned on veteran MP David Davis yesterday after he called for Boris Johnson to resign.
The former minister told Mr Johnson, ‘in the name of God, go’ following the defection of a Tory MP to Labour.
But his Conservative colleagues
‘I don’t know what he’s alluding to’
aimed thier fire instead at the grandee, who quit as Theresa May’s Brexit secretary – causing Sir Edward Leigh to urge the PM: ‘For God’s sake, keep going!’
Mr Davis’s exhortation for the PM to go evoked the intervention of Tory MP Leopold Amery in 1940 to Neville Chamberlian, who quit as Prime Minister three days later.
He was addressing Mr Johnson’s comments on Monday in which he defended his attendance at the May 20 2020 party at Downing Street because nobody had told him it broke lockdown rules. Mr Davis said at Prime Minister’s Questions: ‘I expect my leaders to shoulder the responsibility for the actions they take. Yesterday he did the opposite of that.
‘So, I will remind him of a quotation which may be familiar to his ear: Leopold Amery to Neville Chamberlain – “You have sat too long here for any good you have been doing. In the name of God, go”.’ The Prime Minister replied: ‘I don’t know what quotation he is alluding to. What I can tell him is...
I take full responsibility for everything done in this Government and throughout the pandemic.’
Sir Edward said: ‘But for this Prime Minister we would have had far more severe lockdowns and restrictions, so may I say to him, please Prime Minister remain true to your instincts, please sweep away all these remaining controls... and may I say to him lastly, to paraphrase Leo Amery, for God’s sake, keep going.’ Mr Johnson replied: ‘I haven’t sat here quite long enough...’ Mr Davis later said he had not submitted a letter to the 1922 committee of backbench MPs calling for a vote of no confidence.
His comments triggered a backlash among Tories, with one saying ‘it is brutal, but he is a dinosaur’ and another saying his comments were ‘over the top’. One Cabinet source said Mr Davis believed he could become a ‘father figure’ to the new intake of MPs. ‘I think he’s seen there are some disgruntled new MPs and he thinks he can act as a kind of father figure to them – I think his outburst today was his leadership bid.’
Treasury Chief Secretary Simon Clarke said he ‘disagreed very strongly’ with Mr Davis. Tory MP Andrew Rosindell said: ‘Boris is Prime Minister and David Davis isn’t.’ Tories were quick to point out Mr Davis had urged Mr Johnson to back former MP Owen Paterson against anti-sleaze watchdogs. The disastrous move triggered a humiliating U-turn.