Johnson is facing flak from within Tory ranks
BORIS JOHNSON is facing pressure within the Tory party to re-establish his grip, following a chaotic speech to business leaders and a revolt over social care.
Senior Tory Jeremy Hunt said it had “not been a great month” for the Government, “not just on trivial issues like speeches going wrong but on much more serious issues like parliamentary standards”.
Downing Street insisted the Prime Minister was physically “well” and was “focused on delivering for the public” following questions about his leadership, but one Tory MP said the Prime Minister was “losing the confidence” of his backbenchers and should quit in the new year.
The Prime Minister’s address to the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) on Monday saw him lose his place in his notes, talk about Peppa Pig and impersonate a car.
The Government then survived a rebellion over its social care reforms, with 19 Tories opposing the plans and dozens more not voting at all in response to the cap on costs being less generous than expected.
It followed a bruising few weeks which have seen Mr Johnson’s judgement being questioned over his handling of the Owen Paterson row on parliamentary standards and Tory criticism of scaled-back plans for rail upgrades in the North.
Former Cabinet minister Mr Hunt, who stood against Mr Johnson for the Tory leadership in 2019, said the CBI speech “wasn’t a great moment and it hasn’t been a great month for the Government”.
In a sign of the questions being asked about Mr Johnson, a senior Downing Street source told the BBC “there is a lot of concern inside the building about the PM .... it’s just not working”.
The source said: “Cabinet needs to wake up and demand serious changes, otherwise it will keep getting worse. If they don’t insist, he just won’t do anything about it.”
Mr Hunt acknowledged there were “noises off ” about Mr Johnson’s leadership within the Tory party, but insisted the criticism was not on the same scale as that faced by David Cameron or Theresa May.
“I’m sure there are things that we can do better,” he told Times Radio, “but I was in the Cabinet for nine years from 2010 and frankly there ha never been a time when there weren’t noises off in Westminster, there weren’t backbench MPs with complaints about the way the Government is operating.”
On Sky News, he said: “We all have bad moments and yesterday was not a great one for the Prime Minister.”
A Tory backbencher told the Press Association that support for Mr Johnson was waning, as shown by empty spaces behind him in the Commons at Prime Minister’s Questions last week.
“I think the Prime Minister really needs to consider his position,” the MP said. “He needs to announce in January that he is going. He is a lovable clown, the problem is no one is laughing any more, are they?”
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman sought to minimise the fall-out from Monday’s events.
“The Prime Minister briefly lost his place in a speech,” the spokesman said. “He has given hundreds of speeches. I don’t think it’s unusual for people on rare occasions to lose their place in a speech.”