PM defiant ...as Carrie is blasted
BORIS Johnson was holed up in his Chequers country retreat yesterday fighting for his job.
He has sent a defiant “bring it on” message to rebel Tory MPs trying to topple him.
In a dramatic day, another MP told him to go, his wife Carrie was rubbished in a bombshell book and ally Nadine Dorries gave a series of car-crash interviews.
Former schools minister Nick Gibb became the 14th Tory MP to reveal he had sent a letter demanding a no-confidence
vote. But some experienced MPs are urging colleagues to hold fire until the probes into lockdown parties are complete.
One MP said: “If we have the vote now we will lose it and be stuck with him.”
The PM, meanwhile, is bracing himself for a biography
of his wife Carrie by Tory peer Michael Ashcroft.
In the book, serialised this weekend, Lord Ashcroft quotes the PM as telling aides: “Don’t do anything that’s going to make her torture me when I get home. You’ve got to help me.
“My life at home’s miserable.
You’ve got to find a way to make this bearable for me.”
A spokesperson for Carrie said: “Yet again Mrs Johnson has been targeted by brutal briefing against her by enemies of her husband.”
Despite his woes Boris Johnson last night found two
people prepared to work for him.
Cabinet office supremo Steve
Barclay is the new
No10 chief of staff and ex-BBC journalist Guto Harri becomes the PM’s top spin doctor.