‘Quit Squad’ went in one by one and told their boss to go
IT was an affair reminiscent of the final hours of Margaret Thatcher.
A delegation of Cabinet ministers trooped into No 10 to tell Boris Johnson he had to go after a torrid 24 hours during which dozens of top Tories resigned.
Once-loyal allies including Home Secretary Priti Patel, newly promoted Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi and Transport Secretary Grant Shapps were among the group – dubbed the ‘Quit Squad’ – telling the Prime Minister to step down.
Mr Johnson saw the ministers one by one to hear their damning verdicts on his future. Miss Patel ‘conveyed to him the overwhelming views of the parliamentary party’, while Mr Zahawi was concerned there were no ministers left to run departments.
Mr Shapps told Mr Johnson he stands little chance of commanding a majority of the parliamentary party in a second confidence vote, and should make a dignified exit.
Chief Whip Chris Heaton-Harris and Welsh Secretary Simon Hart also told the PM to go, while Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng and Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis told whips Mr Johnson’s position is ‘untenable’.
Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan was also in No 10 last night but it was unclear whether the PM still had her support.
Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the backbench 1922 Committee, was spotted heading for Downing Street past the Red Lion pub in Whitehall, a Westminster wateringhole and site of political plots and gossip.
He went to No 10 to communicate the views of backbenchers following a meeting in Parliament dominated by calls for the PM to step down.
Mr Zahawi’s involvement in the delegation marked an extraordinary turnaround after he defended the Prime Minister on the airwaves yesterday morning. The new Chancellor had just hours earlier insisted the Government would ‘deliver’, telling Sky News: ‘Sometimes it’s easy to walk away but actually it’s much tougher to deliver for the country.’
But in a dramatic U-turn, sources last night said Mr Zahawi thought Mr Johnson should go because ‘there are government departments without ministers’.
Allies of Mr Johnson were last night circulating
‘Departments are without ministers’
a Daily Express front page from 1990 headlined ‘What Have They Done?’ after Margaret Thatcher’s resignation.
But critics were sharing another: the Sun’s 2010 splash about Gordon Brown after the general election resulted in a hung parliament, headlined: ‘Squatter holed up in No 10’. The PM retained support from loyal
ist Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries, who was also in No 10 last night insisting he could still continue in office.
Mr Johnson spoke to his Cabinet ministers one at a time, rather than being greeted by the whole delegation.
It evoked memories of the ousting of Mrs Thatcher in 1990, when several ministers spoke to her individually to urge her to stand down after Michael Heseltine launched a leadership bid.
Mr Kwarteng, who was on a visit to Teesside to meet Korean businessmen looking to invest billions in the UK’s Red Wall area, had by the afternoon decided the PM should go.
Mr Kwarteng had been due to represent the Government this morning in a series of breakfast television and radio interviews. But shortly before 6pm last night, No 10 told broadcasters he would not be appearing.
Despite the day’s chaos, Mr Johnson made a point of getting on with his normal duties. Between meeting ministers, he held his ‘entirely normal’ weekly audience with the
Queen, the BBC reported. Mr Johnson has stressed that despite dozens of ministerial resignations, millions of people voted for him in the last general election – and has questioned whether any of his successors could repeat his success at the polls.
But one of those involved in the delegation said: ‘This is not about loyalty to the Prime Minister. We are all loyal.
‘But there are departments with big gaps in them that cannot be filled; he has lost the confidence of the parliamentary party. He can’t go on.’
Yesterday Labour frontbencher Conor McGinn warned the Government was now unable to govern.
He said ministers had cancelled ‘important Bill committees in Parliament tomorrow because they now don’t have enough ministers to attend, meaning key legislation has effectively been suspended’.
He complained of a ‘Government that cannot perform even the most basic tasks needed to govern.’