MPs step up leadership rule change drive

SENIOR rebel Tory MPs are pushing to hold a ‘secret ballot’ on whether party rules should be changed to allow another confidence vote in the Prime Minister.

Spurred on by last week’s double by-election loss, members of the party’s 1922 executive committee, which sets the rules, want a vote on whether to hold another attempt to unseat Boris Johnson.

Mr Johnson is safe from another confidence vote for a year after he won one narrowly this month. But this rule can be changed by the 18strong ruling executive of the 1922 Committee of Tory backbenchers.

Executive members told The Mail on Sunday they supported having a ‘secret ballot’ on the rule change immediately, the outcome of which would only be revealed by chairman Sir Graham Brady if 54 MPs sent letters of no confidence in the Prime Minister. The count for letters calling for the PM to go is reset after each confidence vote.

A similar secret vote was held by senior 1922 figures under Theresa May. However sources said Sir Graham never revealed its decision because she resigned before the threshold of letters was met.

There are also efforts to flood the 1922 executive committee with anti-Boris MPs, as revealed by the MoS last week.

Vocal critics including Steve Baker and Andrew Bridgen have said they will run for seats on the committee, which is due to hold elections shortly. The timing of the election to senior posts is due to be determined this week.

Insiders said there was support for a secret ballot on changing the rules by the current committee to avoid losing time. The new executive committee could then hold its own ‘secret ballot’, a source said.

Tory whips expect new letters to start piling in after this weekend, when MPs evaluate the losses of Wakefield to Labour and Tiverton and Honiton to the Lib Dems.

Even formerly loyal party donors criticised Mr Johnson following the double by-election loss. One told the MoS that the Prime Minister was ‘no longer Teflon’ following the Tiverton and Honiton result. Another said: ‘I fear he’s nearing the end.’ Meanwhile, a leading rebel said: ‘We need to move fast. There’s a real prospect Boris will try to call an October election as the only way of trying to save himself. If he came back with a majority of just five or six, he’d settle for that.’

The rebel added that another proposal involves allowing a contest ‘at any time’ – rather than a year after the last vote – but with the threshold of no-confidence letters needed to trigger it doubling each time.

The source said: ‘We’d need 108, and we’d be certain to get that.’

A wider consensus is to hold a confidence vote within six months, following the Commons Privileges Committee’s report into whether Mr Johnson misled Parliament.

Several 1922 executive members oppose change, however, with one saying it would be ‘Maoist’.