Johnson was not ‘wholly honest’ and must go, says top Tory activist
BORIS JOHNSON should resign before he is forced out by his own MPS, the head of the Grassroots Conservatives activist group has said, amid growing signs of concern among leading local Conservatives.
Ed Costelloe said Mr Johnson had not been “wholly honest” about lockdownbreaking parties in Downing Street and risked driving away swing voters at the next general election.
Other senior local party figures in seats represented by Cabinet ministers also voiced discomfort to The Daily Telegraph about Mr Johnson’s predicament. Frustrations among grassroots activists emerged in a week when Conservative MPS have been back in their constituencies during Parliament’s recess. Many will be weighing up the Prime Minister’s political future.
Thirty MPS have publicly urged Mr Johnson to quit to date and there is speculation that a no-confidence vote in his leadership of the party could take place as soon as next week if the required 54 letters are submitted by MPS to Sir Graham Brady, the chairman of the Tory backbench 1922 Committee.
Mr Costelloe is the founder and chairman of Grassroots Conservatives, a group launched during David Cameron’s administration to pressure the party into upholding the ‘small-c’ conservative values of “stable family, sound economy and strong defence”.
He said: “I’ve come to the conclusion that he probably should resign and if he had any sense he would resign before he was pushed ... he needs to go before the next election because some of what he has done will put off voters.
“He just hasn’t been wholly honest about what went on and it would have been better if he ‘fessed up’ and it would all have been over.”
Mr Costelloe added that, while he did not consider tax rises including April’s National Insurance increase “unconservative”, it was a “silly” decision amid the growing cost of living crisis.
“The tax rise is going to hit people at a time when they’re already being hit and the cut in benefits was a foolish thing to do,” he said.
Yesterday, Lord Evans, the chairman of the parliamentary committee on standards in public life, said questions must be raised over whether proper standards are being upheld in government, given recent events.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “There has been a lot of public disquiet about standards over the past six months. It’s one of those things that comes up from time to time and it’s really important to reassure people that we want to continue to maintain decent standards in this country.”
In the constituency of Liz Truss, the Foreign Secretary, Lesley Bambridge, the mayor of West Norfolk and a Tory member of the King’s Lynn and West Norfolk council, voiced fears Mr Johnson had “lost his grip” on No 10.
She said: “Sometimes he doesn’t seem to handle things in the best way. There was the Dominic Cummings episode [and] he should have sacked him.
“I think it is time for him to seriously reflect and decide whether he is the right man for the job at the moment.”
Richard Roberts, leader of Hertfordshire county council, which takes in the seat held by Oliver Dowden, the party’s co-chairman, said it was a situation for Mr Johnson’s parliamentary colleagues “to work through and support or not support him”.