ENOUGH TORY MPS TRIGGER LEADERSHIP POISED TO ELECTION
The tsunami of scandals Boris has already survived...
BORIS JOHNSON has been warned there are enough Tory MPS willing to trigger a no-confidence vote in his leadership, with one saying “I’ve never been more ashamed to be a Conservative”.
With Tories bracing themselves for more revelations of parties in Downing Street during lockdown, many have made it clear they will wait for a report by senior civil servant Sue Gray to be published before passing judgement.
Most MPS are receiving letters from Tory-voting constituents urging them to help trigger a leadership election, with one saying at one point he was getting “an email a minute” on the subject.
And with the mood on the Tory backbenches described as “apocalyptic” the Prime Minister is this week facing the fight of his life to stay in office.
It is understood around a dozen letters have been submitted to the chairman of the 1922 Committee Sir Graham Brady asking for a vote to trigger a leadership election. Sir Graham has insisted he will “not have a running commentary
‘I have never
been more ashamed to be a
Conservative’
on letters” but 54 are needed for a vote, 15 per cent of the MPS.
And the Sunday Express has also learnt Mr Johnson was informed by senior backbenchers before Christmas that there would be enough letters to proceed with a vote to oust him if he tried to bring in further restrictions following the rebellion by 101 MPS over Covid passports.
A senior Conservative and former minister expressed dismay at the latest revelations.
“The whole thing is beyond disgusting,” they said.
“I’ve never been more ashamed to be a Conservative, really, that this was allowed to go on and no one said stop.”
Describing how people at the top of British politics had flouted rules others obeyed, they said: “The elite basically made the rules; we voted for them reluctantly.they shut the schools down and then they laughed at us and didn’t believe in the rules that they were making.
“They have destroyed millions of people’s lives all over the country and all the while they were
partying as if having Roman orgies in 10 Downing Street.”
They called for the Prime Minister to sit down and deliver a “fireside apology to the nation” and stress that Downing Street would accept whatever punishment is meted out for offences.
Few MPS were willing to go on the record to defend their leader but Lia Nici, who represents Great
Grimsby, backed the PM. “Boris has a vision for the UK that people in places like Grimsby voted to see come to fruition,” she said.
“He should sack those at No10 who are working to try to discredit him and thwart his work.”
Writing for the Sunday Express today, Jacob Rees-mogg, one of Mr Johnson’s closest allies in the Cabinet, urged his colleagues to
back the Prime Minister but also called for an end to the “drinking culture” in Downing Street.
However, it has now emerged that Dominic Cummings has provided light-hearted inspiration for a new measurement being used by Tory MPS for how much trouble the Prime Minister is in.
MPS are asking “how many Barnard Castles?” to rate the depth
of the crisis, named after the controversy in April 2020 when the PM’S former chief adviser broke rules by travelling the North East.
One MP said: “The consensus view is the Prime Minister is currently at three Barnard Castles but it could get to five if more letters go in. It’s pretty serious.”
Meanwhile, anger over the conduct in Downing Street
IF BORIS Johnson believes he can see off his foes and keep running the country it is because he has already survived a tsunami of scandals which would have swept away a less preternaturally gifted politician.
Back in 2016, Mr Johnson knocked off a limerick in which he impliedturkish president Receptayyip Erdogan enjoyed carnal relations with a goat. Such lampooning of the leader of an important Nato ally might have wrecked the career of a normal MP, but just a few months later Theresa May appointed him foreign secretary.
He has spent his adult life getting in and out of outrageous scrapes.this knack for survival may convince him that if MPS trigger a vote of no confidence in the coming weeks he has a more than decent chance of winning it.
He has repeatedly demonstrated that the accepted rules of political physics do not apply to him.when Mrs May’s own premiership imploded, the now-former foreign secretary found himself in competition for the leadership with Michael
Gove, whose bid fizzled out after it was revealed he had taken cocaine as a younger man.
No investigative sleuthing was required to unearth evidence of Mr Johnson’s own encounters with various grades of drugs.
Helpfully, in 2007, he had told Piers Morgan that he tried cocaine at university and remembered it “vividly”.
He carried on describing how he had smoked “quite a few” cannabis spliffs.
His familiarity with controlled substances did nothing to stop him winning the first round of the leadership contest and going on to compete against Jeremy Hunt.
It was then reported that police had arrived at the flat he shared with Carrie Symonds after “screaming, shouting and banging” was heard and a neighbour phoned 999.
Doubts among paid-up activists that Mr Johnson should take up residency in Downing Street receded as the weeks rolled on and he won two-thirds of the vote – the latest evidence of his mastery of one of the greatest arts in political alchemy, turning notoriety into electoral gold.
Throughout his life, the 57-year-old has been hit with self-generated disasters. Shortly after graduation he landed a job atthetimes but was sacked amid claims he had fabricated a quote.
He promptly joined the Dailytelegraph and in 1999 was handed the editorship ofthe Spectator.
He didn’t relinquish this coveted position when he was elected as the MP for Henley in 2001, but it led to one of his worst imbroglios. A leader column appeared in the magazine in 2004 in the wake of the murder of Ken Bigley – the Liverpool-born engineer who was beheaded in Iraq – which claimed the people of the city “wallow” in their “victim status”.
Mr Johnson, by now thetories’ culture and arts spokesman, apologised and even visited the city to express his remorse. He admitted that Conservative leader Michael Howard had given him a “kicking” – but this would not be his last run-in with the party boss.
The MP had described claims of his affair with writer Petronella Wyatt as an “inverted pyramid of piffle”. In November 2004, when Mswyatt’s mother revealed that her daughter had an abortion after becoming pregnant with Mr Johnson, thetory leader’s patience snapped and he sacked him for not telling the truth.
Still the gaffes kept coming – such as when he responded to Jamie Oliver’s crusade for healthier school dinners by reportedly asking why mothers shouldn’t “push pies through the railings”.
Mr Johnson’s brand of liberal conservatism was just what legions of Londoners wanted after two terms of Ken Livingstone and in 2008 he became mayor and continued his march towards No 10.
His sojourn as Foreign Secretary was not a glorious one. He made matters worse for Nazanin Zaghari-ratcliffe – who was imprisoned in Iran.
This didn’t stop him reaching Downing Street and at first it looked as if he remained cloaked in a scandal-dispelling forcefield.
In September 2019 the Supreme Court ruled that his advice to the Queen to prorogue parliament was unlawful.yet voters awarded Mr Johnson an 80-seat majority in December.
Likewise, the details of his alleged affair with Jennifer Arcuri – whose tech business received public funds – didn’t throw him off course.
Alas for the PM, he is now in deep trouble for two reasons. First, he is no longer a mischievous maverick but the PM. If it is established he condoned illegal parties while people couldn’t visit dying relatives he will be seen as the embodiment of an aloof elite which does not live by the rules it imposes on others. Second, MPS are worried the Boris brand is so damaged he can no longer work magic at the polls.
Mr Johnson could be forgiven for wanting to quit the political melee, but this present peril may only strengthen his appetite for the fight.