Rebels took their cue from the public, not the Westminster ‘bubble’

‘TONIGHT we have the opportunity to end weeks of media speculation and take this party forward,” read Boris Johnson’s begging letter to MPS.

Designed to fortify his fanbase before Monday’s confidence vote, the three-page missive, addressed “Dear colleague” and personally signed “Yours ever, Boris” had a recurring theme.

The 907-word plea for support appeared to suggest that the press were somehow to blame for the predicament the Prime Minister now finds himself in.

Suggesting that colleagues had been “focusing on Westminster politics” to the detriment of voters, the former Daily Telegraph journalist argued that “some of the criticism has perhaps been fair, some less so”. It concluded: “We can put an end to the media’s favourite obsession. We can get on with the job without the noises off.”

After winning the confidence vote by 211 to 148, he gave an interview, when he again appeared to suggest that this was a so-called Westminster bubble story that had been “dragging on for far too long”. “Although you may want to focus on me, on politics and on Westminster,” he told Sky News. “I think what matters is what we deliver and what we do.”

While it may always be tempting for politicians in peril to shoot the messenger, the epistle appears to overlook one pertinent fact. That actually the distracting and intrusive background babble wasn’t just coming from the front pages and the evening news – but the doorsteps of Britain.

As polling guru Prof Sir John Curtice pointed out yesterday, the Tories’ biggest problem is that the public does not trust the PM. “The point is, when polls repeatedly tell you that the Government, that the Prime Minister is not believed, you should be sitting up and taking notice and not assume that this is some fabrication of polling,” he told GB News.

“What you know when polls repeatedly come up with that kind of number is that the vast majority of people do not believe the Prime Minister’s account of the partygate scandal.

“And of course you do actually see that eventually reflected in what people say to camera and the boos that you hear at the Prime Minister outside St Paul’s Cathedral, they’re not necessarily representative but they are iconic of a mood that is very intuitive.”

One of the many reasons why the letters to Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 Committee, went from a dribble to a deluge over the Whitsun recess was precisely because MPS were back in their constituencies, taking soundings from those who elected them. As Andrew Bridgen, who has submitted a no confidence letter, revealed: “On the Friday before half term I went on a school visit. There were over 400 children and several hundred parents.

“More than half of the people who came up to me said: “We still support the Conservatives but Boris has to go.”

Dehenna Davison, a Red Wall MP and the first Tory to win Bishop Auckland since the seat’s creation in 1885, also appeared to have had her ear chewed off by constituents. Revealing why she voted against Mr Johnson, she said: “This is not a decision I took lightly. I listened to all sides, and particularly to the many constituents who contacted me sharing their thoughts and experiences.

“Weighing it all up, I voted against the Prime Minister tonight.”

Having spent the week hearing mounting levels of voter discontent, Conservatives then had their worst fears confirmed when Mr Johnson was booed during the Platinum Jubilee weekend.

According to one backbencher: “I think that was a significant moment for colleagues. These weren’t your usual Left-wing Remainer types, they were flag waving royalists who had queued for hours. A lot of them would have been Tory voters.”

With the Jubilee celebrations dominating the headlines, in reality the newspapers were caught off guard by Sir Graham’s announcement, first thing on Monday morning, that the 15 per cent threshold had been reached.

The public had made up the minds of rebel MPS – not the media.

‘When polls repeatedly tell you that the Government, that the Prime Minister is not believed, you should be sitting up’