The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Ex-leader urges Johnson to quit after poll disaster
Boris Johnson has been told to resign for the good of the Tory Party and the country by former Conservative leader Michael Howard after the double by-election defeat.
The prime minister vowed to “keep going” after his authority was dealt a series of blows, including the resignation of Cabinet minister Oliver Dowden yesterday.
Mr Dowden quit as Conservative Party cochairman, saying he and Tory supporters were “distressed and disappointed by recent events” and telling Mr Johnson that “someone must take responsibility”.
But speaking 4,000 miles away at a Commonwealth summit in Rwanda, Mr Johnson vowed to “listen” to voters after losing the former Tory stronghold of
Tiverton and Honiton to the Liberal Democrats and Wakefield to Labour.
Lord Howard told BBC Radio 4’s the World At One programme: “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.”
Lord Howard, who led the Tories between 2003 and 2005, has not been an outspoken critic of Mr Johnson’s in the past, but did sack him as a shadow minister for lying about an affair.
Welsh Conservatives leader Andrew RT Davies suggested it was difficult to justify Mr Johnson remaining in office.
“I presume that’s getting far more challenging when the prime minister looked in the mirror these days with the messages that are coming from the ballot box such as by-elections we had last night,” he said.
With 324 Tories elected in 2019 with smaller majorities than in the Tiverton and Honiton constituency, MPs including Conservative grandee Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown raised concerns they could lose their seats at the next general election.
Speaking to broadcasters, Mr Johnson said he would take responsibility, but insisted the cost-of-living crisis was the most important issue for voters.
“It’s absolutely true we’ve had some tough by-election results. They’ve been, I think, a reflection of a lot of things, but we’ve got to recognise voters are going through a tough time at the moment,” he said at the conference centre in Kigali.
In the rural Devon constituency of Tiverton and Honiton, the Lib Dems overturned a 24,000 Tory majority to win, while Labour reclaimed Wakefield.
The contests, 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.
Former minister Jesse Norman said Mr Johnson was insulting the electorate and making a decisive change of government at the next general election “much more likely” by prolonging “this charade”.
Veteran Tory MP Sir Roger Gale said the prime minister had “trashed” the party’s reputation.
A swing of almost 30% from the Tories to the
Liberal Democrats saw Richard Foord secure a majority of 6,144 in Tiverton and Honiton.
The vote was triggered by the resignation of Neil Parish after he was caught watching pornography in Parliament.
The new Lib Dem MP used his acceptance speech to call for Mr Johnson “to go, and go now”.
Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey said it was “time for Conservative MPs to finally do the right thing and sack him”.
In Wakefield, Simon Lightwood was elected with a majority of 4,925 on a swing of 12.7% from the Tories to Labour.
The previous Wakefield MP, Imran Ahmad Khan, quit after being found guilty of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy – a crime for which he was jailed for 18 months.