A FRIDGE TOO FAR
»»He ‘should resign in the public interest’
KEIR Starmer today accuses Boris Johnson of caring only about saving his own skin, as the Prime Minister’s Cabinet stood poised to turn on him.
Writing in the Sunday Mirror, the Labour leader says: “The sheer number of boozy, lockdown-breaking parties makes you wonder where he finds time to do any work.
“He can no longer do his basic duties. In the public interest, he should resign.
“It’s clear that what he wants is what’s best for him.”
Ministers are set to tell the PM that his time is up if he uses his powers to overrule this week’s report into No10 parties by Whitehall enforcer Sue Gray.
Wannabe leader Chancellor
Rishi Sunak has already
QUIT CALL Tory Bridgen
distanced himself from the Prime Minister. Others will also turn hostile if Mr Johnson attempts to dodge Ms Gray’s findings.
She is now investigating at least 16 rulebreaking parties across Whitehall, most of them at No10 and four of which the PM attended.
She will also have to probe Daily Mirror revelations yesterday that Downing Street staffers held “wine-time Fridays” throughout the pandemic and even installed a £142 drinks fridge to keep their prosecco chilled.
But Ms Gray will produce a clinically factual report – and it will be for standards watchdog Lord Geidt to decide whether it means the PM has breached the ministerial code.
Former Cabinet Secretary Lord Butler told the BBC: “Sue Gray’s job is not to deliver a judgment on the PM.” And Catherine Haddon of the Institute for Government confirmed:
“The report may not assign individual blame but might refer disciplinary action to others. The bare facts alone could prove deeply damaging.”
But a senior Tory insider said: “Boris has the power to block any investigation. He alone decides whether he has broken the code.”
The PM wielded that power when Home Secretary Priti Patel was found to have breached the code by bullying staff and kept her job.
Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner pointed out: “Any judgment on the conduct of Boris Johnson goes to... Boris Johnson.
“He has managed to make himself judge and jury, even though he is the man in the dock.”
Tory backbench shop steward Sir Graham Brady needs letters from 54 Tory MPs demanding a vote of no confidence in the Prime Minister for a ballot to go ahead. It is estimated that he has received around 20 so far.
Many Tory MPs are holding off submitting their own letters until they have seen Ms Gray’s report. They fear that moving against the PM
too early would throw him a lifeline. If fewer than half of Tory MPs vote against Mr Johnson in a ballot, he cannot be challenged for another year under Conservative party rules.
Cabinet ministers could sidestep that situation by prising Mr Johnson out of No10 if the facts contained in the Gray dossier are damning, just as they did with Margaret Thatcher in 1990.
And local Tory associations could follow Sutton Coldfield’s lead by declaring no confidence in the PM.
It would take 65 of them to force a special conference to depose him. But yesterday angry Tory MPs, swamped by complaints from constituents, could not wait for the report.
Former minister Tobias Ellwood, chairman of the Commons Defence Committee, told the BBC: “We need leadership. Boris Johnson must lead or step aside.” And backbencher Andrew Bridgen said: “Boris Johnson has lost the moral authority to lead the country.”
He is the only MP to admit to sending a no-confidence letter, although senior Tories including Caroline Nokes, Roger Gale and William Wragg have called publicly for the PM to quit.
So has Douglas Ross, leader of the Scottish Conservatives.
As a new poll by Find Out Now/Electoral Calculus gave Labour a 14-point lead – the highest since the days of Tony Blair – Mr Bridgen added: “It’s one rule for them and the rest of us do as we’re told. That is not acceptable.
“I’m not sure that any apology is going to put that right. The buck stops with Boris Johnson.
“If there’s another emergency where he has to call on the public to make sacrifices, he doesn’t have that authority. That makes his position completely untenable.”
Sir Keir added: “We’ve got a Prime Minister who is absent. He is literally in hiding. It is now in the national interest that he goes.”
Last week Downing Street was forced to apologise to the Queen after it emerged that two boozy staff parties were held on April 16 last year, the eve of her husband the Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral.
The chairman of the NHS Confederation, Victor Adebowale, went so far as to dub the seat of power “Club Downing Street”.
And Tory grandee Steve Norris – a former transport minister – told Property Week: “Boris has run out of road.
“It’s time for someone who can turn up at an international conference without looking like some sort of joke.”
A No10 spokeswoman said: “There is an ongoing investigation to establish the facts.”