Boris Johnson's announcement that he intended to run for a third term and govern into the mid 2030s, is said to have provoked Tory MPs
Conservative Party MPs are this week resubmitting letters of no confidence in Boris Johnson to the 1922 committee, in a desperate bid to topple the prime minister.
While Johnson is attending the G7 summit in Germany, his announcement that he intended to run for a third term and govern into the mid 2030s, is said to have provoked Tory MPs into resubmitting a new wave of letters.
Despite winning a no-confidence vote earlier this month, albeit with an unexpectedly large rebellion, The Daily Telegraph reports that more MPs had submitted letters to the 1922 committee.
One former Cabinet minister told the Telegraph: “Talking about a third term before even winning a second is taking voters for granted – that usually doesn’t end well.”
A second source said: “It has already provoked more letters,” while a former Johnson loyalist said: “For some colleagues, it has an air of unreality – which is annoying quite a few of them.”
News of additional letters also comes after the Tories suffered humiliating by-election defeats in Wakefield and Tiverton and Honiton.
Those defeats led to the resignation of Tory chair Oliver Dowden as well as reports that at least half a dozen Tory MPs are in talks to defect to the Labour Party.
Damian Green MP is among those who have urged the Cabinet to move against Johnson. “It’s no secret that many of the people in the Cabinet are setting up potential leadership campaigns,” he told Andrew Neil on Channel 4 last night.
“I think if this long agony for everyone concerned, from the PM down, is to be brought to a head… then maybe somebody in the Cabinet might wish to take some action.”
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
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