PM may face back-to-back leadership battles

BORIS JOHNSON could face a second leadership challenge within six months even if he were to survive one in the coming weeks, under “live” proposals being discussed by backbench Tories.

With Sue Gray’s report into Downing Street parties expected as soon as next Wednesday, there is renewed speculation that her findings will trigger a wave of letters of no confidence in the Prime Minister.

Should the threshold of 54 letters be hit, allies of Mr Johnson are confident he could survive the subsequent vote.

A total of 181 MPS – more than half of the parliamentary party – would need to vote against him for the Prime Minister to be removed from office.

However, senior Conservative sources have revealed that, if Mr Johnson were to survive, he is unlikely to be immune from another challenge for 12 months, as is currently the case.

Instead, two insiders said there was now a “live discussion” among the executive members of the 1922 Committee of backbench Tory MPS over whether the grace period should be halved to just six months.

Should the committee decide to change the rules, they added it was likely that the threshold required to trigger a second ballot would double, with the number of Tory MPS required to submit letters increasing from 15 per cent to 30 per cent. Similar discussions were understood to have occurred after Theresa May survived a vote of confidence in 2018.

The change was ultimately deemed unnecessary when she resigned on May 24, 2019, the day after the Tories suffered a disastrous set of results in the European elections.

“These conversations take place every time there is a crisis of confidence,” a senior source said last night.

“The issue is that the 1922’s job is to represent the party. And if the PM were to win and they were to flood in again, then it’s not clear what would happen.

“Anyone assuming that there is going to be a 12-month period is mistaken.”