There is time for a new, sterner prime minister to prove their worth before the next election

SIR – Having voted for Boris Johnson all along, I think he now has to go, and sooner rather than later.

He has been the most unlucky prime minister – with Covid to deal with – but there have been too many mishaps, and he will never win another election.

The Tories must get back to their basic values with a true statesman (male or female) at the helm to prove their worth before going to the country again, and that person will have to rule with an iron fist.

Andrew Barr

Lenham, Kent

SIR – A number of Conservative MPS are calling for the Prime Minister to step down.

First, Mr Johnson’s attendance at the No 10 party was an unfortunate error of judgment, but no more than that. This is not a resignation matter.

Secondly, Tory MPS need to pause amid the media-inspired hysteria, take a breath and reflect that many of them won their seat at the last election because of Boris Johnson’s popularity.

He has been the most popular and charismatic Conservative leader since Margaret Thatcher at her peak.

It is time to get behind him, not dump him.

Dr Alistair A Donald

Watlington, Oxfordshire

SIR – “Technically it wasn’t a party” reminds me of: “I did not have sexual relations with that woman.”

Rob Dorrell

Bath, Somerset

SIR – On May 8 2020, when restrictions were severer than they would be on May 20, the date of the Downing Street gathering, I was walking down a residential side street in Amersham, about a mile from where I live.

The street was lined with tables in front of the houses, on which the residents had set bottles and glasses, and groups of up to about 10 were gathered round the tables drinking and talking, and moving about from table to table – just as they would at any party. Some seemed careful to stay six feet apart, but most didn’t seem to try.

It would be another week before I was allowed to meet my girlfriend, and even then we weren’t allowed to touch.

At the time, though, I regarded that informal (and illegal) party as a sign of hope that the lockdown was coming to an end, even though I could not benefit from it yet.

Perhaps, now, I ought to be angry with those people – to report them to the police, indeed report myself, since I was physically present while the party was going on and did not stop it.

Or perhaps I ought to remember what it was like at the time of the first lockdown, when we knew much less about this disease and had no vaccine against it – and be glad, as I was then, that people were still determined to be human in the face of greater danger than that which now confronts us. Simon Jones

Chesham Bois, Buckinghamshire

SIR – One misjudgment may be pardonable, but the Prime Minister acknowledged that he regretted a number of them. A leader is chosen for having good judgment, which the Prime Minister admits he lacks.

The Conservatives are likely to lose the next election, but keeping the current leader may bring a far worse outcome than even some pessimists fear. There is still time to act. Alexander Hopkinson-woolley Bembridge, Isle of Wight

SIR – Should I ever be invited to vote for a world king, I would certainly vote for Boris Johnson.

Roger Stevens

Yelverton, Devon

SIR – As Enoch Powell said: “All political lives, unless they are cut off in midstream at a happy juncture, end in failure.”

David Vaudrey

Doynton, Gloucestershire

SIR – If Boris goes, how long will it be before he is offered a knighthood? Mark Solon

London E1