Conservatives must face facts: their biggest problem is now Boris Johnson

SIR – The Wakefield and Tiverton by-election results, following on from the North Shropshire result last December, are the latest warning from voters that Boris Johnson must go if the Conservative Party is to avoid a 1997-style election disaster.

Only swift and decisive action by the Cabinet can save the party from annihilation – and the country from Labour and the Liberal Democrats.

Terry Smith London NW11

SIR – The by-election losses for the Conservative Party were of such a scale that even Boris Johnson’s most loyal supporters must now realise how toxic he has become.

Oliver Dowden did the right thing by resigning, and it is time that the Prime Minister did the same – voluntarily or otherwise.

Kim Potter Lambourn, Berkshire

SIR – It was interesting to watch the new MP for Tiverton, Richard Foord, followed by Liberal Democrat leader, Sir Ed Davey, on television on Friday.

Mr Foord gave Boris Johnson both barrels, effectively calling him a liar and announcing: “The Lib Dems are coming.”

Hmm. I may not live long enough for that. The Clegg/Cameron farrago was enough for me.

Meanwhile, the smug Sir Ed was at pains to tell viewers that this result was not a “protest vote,” which it obviously was.

This country is in the throes of what could be a long and difficult haul. We have had a succession of governments that have sat on their hands during relative good times, and are now discovering that there is not – and has never been – a contingency plan.

We have saddled ourselves with enormous debt, taxed workers and pensioners beyond reasonable bounds, taken in countless numbers of illegal immigrants, allowed unions to rule the roost, depleted our military to unacceptably low levels and let our police forces operate only from offices and cars. The solution? Find a PM with a plan. Might be tricky, that one.

Trevor Anderson Tunbridge Wells, Kent

SIR – Former, unsuccessful leaders of the Conservative Party, such as Michael Howard, should not opine about the current leader.

Lord Howard’s call for Boris Johnson to resign was totally irresponsible. Amid a cost-of-living crisis, a war in Ukraine and various other demands, to hold a Conservative leadership contest would be nonsensical.

Simon Watson Ampfield, Hampshire

SIR – The by-election results were not just punishing the Tories for partygate and other crises, but also for their destruction of the green belt.

I live in a village of some 2,300 people. Currently we have developments progressing that will double the population. They are to be built on green belt land, and will destroy old hedgerows and overwhelm the infrastructure of the village.

The Prime Minister pledged at last year’s party conference that no homes would be built on “green fields”, and our local MP says on her website that she wants to prevent this area from being “swamped by concrete”.

Some broken promises can be reversed – but building on the green belt cannot. Come the next general election, the Tories will find that their traditional supporters – myself included – have deserted them.

David Rands Harlington, Bedfordshire

SIR – I wouldn’t have voted for the Tories this week – not because of the way the Government has handled Covid, the economy or immigration, but because it has been sitting out the culture wars.

The toppling and vandalising of statues, the NHS refusing to talk about “women”, the rewriting of history in schools and universities, national institutions falling over themselves to claim they’re the racist beneficiaries of slavery and colonialism – all of this, and much more, on the Government’s watch, with barely a squeak from a minister.

It’s time the Tories put the small c back into “conservative”.

Paul Stephenson Saint-Genis-Pouilly, Ain, France