TORIES PLOT TO REPLACE INEPT BORIS MPs aim to get rid of him before May
TORY MPs are being recruited for a coup to topple Boris Johnson, insiders claim.
At least one is ready to submit a letter demanding a leadership contest with more threatening to follow suit.
They hope it will pressure the PM into standing down before an expected drubbing in council elections in May.
One MP said: “This year’s local authority polls were postponed through Covid and added to next year’s so we’ll be in double trouble. We need Boris gone by then.”
Under party rules, 55 MPs must write to Sir Graham Brady, head of the Tories’ powerful 1922 Committee, to trigger a leadership contest.
The fact that some are prepared to do so with the PM sitting on a majority of 80 shows how far he has sunk.
One senior Tory said: “He keeps making mistakes and doesn’t learn from them.
“We knew he’d have to U-turn on A-levels and free school meals over the summer. Now he forces us to vote to starve children over Christmas. You can be sure he’ll U-turn on that, too. I’ve never seen such ineptitude.”
Another added: “He says he follows the science. Yet when scientists said we needed a circuit breaker over half term, he ignored them.”
The letter rebels are believed to be in a WhatsApp group nicknamed the
Lockdown Loons which includes the likes of Iain Duncan Smith, John Redwood and Esther McVey. But there is also a strong belief among disgruntled Tories that Mr Johnson may quit in spring before he can be forced out.
An MP said: “He wants to get Brexit done to have a lasting legacy. And that won’t be properly sorted until March at the earliest.”
The PM has privately complained he cannot live on his £150,402 salary. And he is aware Theresa May has made more than £1million on the lecture circuit since quitting No10.
Mr Johnson believes he could earn double that. Shortly before entering No10, he made £160,000 from two speeches. He also got £23,000 a month for a newspaper column.
Michael Gove, Rishi Sunak and Dominic Raab are all expected to go for the PM’s job, but many Tories expect the real contest to be between ex- Chancellor Sajid Javid and ex-Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt.
One MP who knows the PM well said: “Boris was never a details man. Being PM just does not suit him.”