DOUBLE DEFEAT FOR BORIS, BUT HE’LL CARRY ON

Defiant PM insists he will ‘keep going’ despite calls for him to quit after by-election blows

BORIS Johnson has vowed to ‘keep going’ despite suffering a bloody nose from two by-election losses on the same day.

The Prime Minister was criticised after the Conservatives lost their former stronghold of Tiverton and Honiton to the Liberal Democrats and Wakefield to Labour.

However, a defiant Mr Johnson said he would ‘listen’ to voters in the wake of the damaging defeats and described the political attacks on him as part of the job.

Cabinet ministers, including Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab and Home Secretary Priti Patel, have urged the PM to reflect on the results.

Their support appeared less than overwhelming after party chairman Oliver Dowden resigned and Tory grandees urged the PM to go.

Miss Patel said it was ‘important and right’ the Conservatives have a ‘moment of reflection’ after losing the seats, adding the Government needed to ‘listen’.

Mr Raab said the Government needs to be ‘relentlessly focused’ after facing ‘distractions’ such as Partygate. ‘I think

‘We need to listen very carefully’

the Prime Minister put it well: we need to listen very carefully, we need to take that feedback,’ he said.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak said ‘we all take responsibility for the results’ – though he didn’t mention Mr Johnson in his tweet.

The results also drew criticism from Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross. He said: ‘It’s terrible for a party to lose any seats but particularly Tiverton, it was a massive conservative majority and the Liberal Democrats came from third to win that seat.’

Mr Ross, who described the byelection results as ‘disappointing, said he agreed with Mr Dowden’s assessment of the situation.

He said: ‘I think his words were absolutely right. We have to listen to the public who have been very clear not just in these two by elections but what they were saying back in May in the local election.’

Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries defended Mr Johnson and said that the Government remained ‘relentlessly focused’.

Their comments came as former Conservative leader Michael Howard urged the PM to resign for the good of his party and country.

The Conservative peer told BBC Radio 4: ‘The party and even more importantly the country would now be better off under new leadership. Members of the Cabinet should very carefully consider their positions.’

Last night, a bullish Mr Johnson told a press conference in Rwanda – 4,000 miles from Westminster – that people would continue to ‘beat me up and say this or that about me to attack me. That’s fine; that’s right. That’s the job of politicians.’

Party sources insisted he had a ‘big job’ to do as he seeks to tackle a cost of living crisis and navigate war in Europe.

Health Secretary Sajid Javid said Labour and the Liberal Democrats must ‘come clean’ over whether they have an electoral pact to force out the Tories after ‘industrialscale’ tactical voting apparently drove the by-election defeats.

The Conservatives fear Labour and the Lib Dems are plotting an election pact with SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon to usher in a Leftwing government which could put the Union under threat with a second independence referendum.

Mr Javid said: ‘Keir Starmer and the Lib Dems need to come clean to the public about any electoral pact. A Starmer-led government propped up by the Lib Dems and SNP would break up our Union, and take our economy backwards when we can least afford it.

‘We must not allow that to happen which is why we need to unite and drive forward.’

Mr Johnson learned the results in the early hours of yesterday morning before going for a swim in his hotel pool in Rwanda’s capital Kigali at 6am. He returned to his room to receive a telephone call from Mr Dowden who informed him he was about to resign.

He is said to have been surprised by the news but is unlikely to replace him imminently.

The Prime Minister assembled his staff for their daily meeting at 7am before phoning Mr Sunak and his chief whip.

Downing Street said that Mr Johnson will continue with his trip to the G7 in Germany and Nato in Madrid, saying it would be an ‘abdication of responsibility for any Prime Minister’ to miss them. The trip is badly timed as it will take him out of the country for nine days at a time when he faces turmoil at home.

Following Mr Dowden’s resignation, party sources insisted that the PM was not worried about further departures.

They said the only mechanism for toppling him is a vote of confidence and he won the last with a ‘conclusive’ result.

The source said: ‘The PM doesn’t disagree that he needs to take responsibility. He’s taking responsibility for the overall direction of

‘It’s not the wheels coming off the bus’

the Government. These were byelections in particularly difficult circumstances. The events that led to the by-elections being called were less than ideal.

‘Governments mid-term, particularly when they’ve been in power for more than one term, tend to lose by-elections.’

The source added of the results: ‘It’s not the wheels coming off the bus, it’s a couple of nuts’

The by-elections, triggered by the resignation of two disgraced Tories, offered voters the chance to give their verdict on the Prime Minister just weeks after 148 of his MPs cast their ballots against him in a confidence vote.