THIS IS WHAT IT’S LIKE BEING LIED TO, BORIS..
»»We find 17 Tories WRONGLY believed to have voted for PM »»No10‘witch-hunt’ on to discover who the traitors are
A CONSERVATIVE party “witch-hunt” is underway to unmask 17 two-faced Tory MPs who publicly backed Boris Johnson – before voting against his leadership.
And the Sunday Mirror knows who some of them they are.
We spoke to a number of top Tories this week who have showered praise on the Prime Minister’s leadership – only to privately indicate to us that they voted no-confidence.
And today we can lift the lid on Manic Monday and how dithering MPs received a mixture of pleading letters and threatening texts from a panicking Downing Street.
In the secret ballot, Mr Johnson got 211 backers on Monday night – with 148 Tory MPs saying he should go.
When we drilled deeper into the numbers, our analysis found 204 Conservative MPs who had either claimed they had voted for Mr Johnson or made positive statements about his leadership in the days around the vote.
We then found a further 24 MPs with government jobs – either ministers, whips or Parliamentary Private Secretaries – who had made no public statements, but who would be expected to do the honourable thing and resign if they had voted against in the PM. No one quit.
That amounts to 228 Tories backing Mr Johnson in public – but that is 17 more than the number who actually voted for him in the secret ballot.
Mr Johnson claimed a “decisive” victory in the challenge, despite more than 40% of his MPs rejecting him. And it’s led to feverish speculation among his allies over which of his top team stabbed him in the back. A total of 17 no-confidence liars gave him a taste of his own medicine and turned against him in secrecy while pretending to back him.
A Whitehall source said. “There’ll be a witchhunt, of course. It shouldn’t be too hard to work out who did what when the reshuffle comes.”
Rebels are plotting another bid to oust the PM if he loses both by-elections in Wakefield and Tiverton and Hointon later this month.
But it would need a change in party rules that protect him from another challenge for a year.
Meanwhile, the depths of the PM’s fears of the boot on Monday have emerged. Cabinet
ministers were ordered to tweet their support. MPs received personally addressed and signed letters from the PM pleading for their backing.
Later each was warned by text from Downing Street: “In the reshuffle, only loyalty will be rewarded.”
In the hours leading up to the vote worried Mr Johnson met known wavering MPs in his Commons office in a bid to
talk them round. But his mood after the vote was said to be “upbeat”.
That might change after the by-elections a week on Thursday.
Some Downing Street insiders have given up on winning in Wakefield but are “throwing everything” at Tiverton.
“Johnson thinks Tiverton is the one,” a Whitehall source said. “They will live with winning one and losing the other.”
On the heels of the double by-election will be the probe by the Commons Procedure committee into whether Mr Johnson lied to Parliament.
This week Labour’s Harriet Harman is expected to be named chair of the investigation which could unearth damning private messages proving how much Mr Johnson knew about No10 parties.
In the coming weeks he is expected to use his threatened reshuffle to punish disloyal ministers – and reward those who he believes backed him.
A Downing Street spokesman said: “Last week’s vote was a conclusive and decisive result which will allow the Government to get on with delivering the public’s priorities.
“This includes easing financial pressures on families, making access to NHS care quicker, making the streets safer and levelling up the country.”