8 Thursday February 3 2022 | the times
News
Five Conservative MPs called for Boris
Johnson’s resignation in just over 24
hours amid growing unrest at his hand-
ling of the Downing Street parties saga.
A clutch of backbenchers from differ-
ent generations and various wings of
the party took the total number of
Johnson’s own MPs publicly demand-
ing his departure to 13.
At least a further five, including
members of the government, are con-
sidering submitting letters of no confi-
dence in the coming days, The Times
has learnt. While it is not thought to be
a co-ordinated plot, momentum is
growing behind a challenge.
If Sir Graham Brady, the chairman of
the 1922 Committee of Conservative
backbenchers, receives 54 letters then
Johnson will face a confidence vote
among his parliamentary party. While
most MPs believe the present tally is far
short of that number, the steady drip of
new letters shows that the prime minis-
ter has failed to staunch the unease over
the issue in Conservative ranks.
Nadine Dorries, the culture secre-
tary and Johnson’s most passionate de-
fender, accused the rebels of selfish-
ness. She wrote on Twitter: “The defin-
ing mission of the PM and this
government is to level up the whole of
the UK. On the very day we are setting
out steps to make this happen, a hand-
ful of egos want to make it all about
them. It’s selfish, doing Labour’s work
and it’s really not helping their consti-
tuents.”
Shortly after 5pm yesterday, Sir Gary
Streeter, the MP for South West Devon,
said he had submitted a letter of no
confidence in Johnson’s leadership.
On his constituency website Streeter
said that he had wanted to wait for Sue
Gray’s report to be published before
making a decision. “I cannot reconcile
the pain and sacrifice of the vast
majority of the British public during
lockdown with the attitude and activi-
ties of those working in Downing
Street,” he said.
Streeter, 66, who was first elected to
the Commons in 1992, was a minister
under Sir John Major and in Lord Hag-
ue of Richmond’s shadow cabinet but
has sat on the back benches since 2004.
His intervention came two hours
after Anthony Mangnall, who was
elected the MP for Totnes in 2019, went
public. Mangnall, 32, said: “Standards in
public life matter. At this time I can no
longer support the PM. His actions and
mistruths are overshadowing the ex-
traordinary work of so many excellent
ministers and colleagues. I have sub-
mitted a letter of no confidence.”
Earlier Tobias Ellwood, a former
minister elected in 2005 who is chair-
man of the defence select committee,
called for Johnson’s resignation. “We’re
back in this holding pattern, waiting for
another announcement, with the pro-
spect of a steady drip of stories,” he told
Sky News. “This is just horrible for all
MPs to continuously have to defend
this to the British public.
“I don’t think the prime minister real-
ises how worried colleagues are in
every corner of the party that this is all
going only one way, and will invariably
slide towards a very ugly place. I believe
it’s time for the prime minister to take a
grip of this — he himself should call a
vote of confidence rather than waiting
for the inevitable 54 letters to be event-
ually submitted. It’s time to resolve this
so the party can get back to governing.”
The trio followed Peter Aldous, 60,
who was elected in 2010, and Sir
Charles Walker, 54, a former acting
chairman of the 1922 Committee from
the 2005 intake, who called for John-
son’s resignation late on Tuesday.
Their concerns are shared by many
Tory MPs in the 40-strong One Nation
group, but there are also fears among
Johnson’s supporters that anger is seep-
ing out of less predictable parts of the
parliamentary party.
William Wragg, 34, the MP for Hazel
Grove in Greater Manchester since
2015, said: “I sadly think that the prime
minister’s position is untenable and I
don’t believe it should be left to the find-
ings of a civil servant to determine the
future of the prime minister and indeed
who governs this country. It is for the
Conservative Party, if not the prime
minister, to make that decision.”
Roger Gale, 78, the MP for North
Thanet, said: “He’s done a good job
delivering certain things, but I think
we’ve now got to the stage where
frankly we have to find another leader.”Quentin
Letts
Tributes
highlight
kind, adult
politics
T
ough lady, Harriet
Harman. After tributes to
her husband Jack
Dromey, who died
suddenly three weeks
ago, she herself made a speech
about him. How many of us could
have done that? Upstairs sat her
family, fighting tears.
Some MPs who spoke also wenta little wobbly; even in the press
gallery a few eyes prickled. Yet
Harman, in widow’s black, held her
head high and spoke of her lost love
as “a superpower” of support. He
had also been, she noted, “the polar
opposite of the culture wars”.
Dromey was not one of life’s
haters. He never snarled across the
chamber.
Guy Opperman (C, Hexham),
pensions minister, recalled that he
and Dromey co-operated closely,
not least when Opperman suffered
the dreadful loss of infant sons two
years ago.
Those Dromey tributes came after
another raucous PMQs and before a
shouty session on the government’s
levelling-up policies. Confected
anger abounded. Cruel attitudes
were struck.
Why do we allow ourselves to be
polluted by these poses? Members
would not settle for mere
disagreement.
They felt a compulsion to accuse
opponents of wickedness. Having
done which, they tapped out feverish
tweets boasting how virtuous they
had just been.
Outside parliament, a man with a
ghetto blaster accused Boris
Johnson of being a “snake” and
“fascist”, something he seems to
have done every week for the past
five years. No one follows his spiel
any more. The noise merely makes
everyone feel stressed.
Immediately before primeminister’s questions, Sir Lindsay
Hoyle made a “cool it” plea. MPs
should not accuse others of lying.
Nor did Hoyle want “fruitless cycles
of accusation and counter-
accusation”.
Mr Speaker may have chosen the
wrong career. Hoyle noted that
British sign language coverage of
debates was available, presumably
with disobliging gestures.
We flew into the frontbench
fisticuffs. These are going the way of
the Australian Open tennis final. Sir
Keir Medvedev wins one game
before Boris Nadal retrieves ground
with the next. Monday’s Sue Gray
session saw the prime minister
carted out by stretcher bearers. Now
came PMQs and Johnson had his
benches yelling “more!” while
Starmer looked a stodge.
Starmer began by accusing
Johnson of parroting “violent
fascists”. The Labour leader was sore
about a Jimmy Savile dig the PM
made on Monday. This had become
the morning’s chest-clutching
shockeroo. Johnson replied that he
“didn’t want to make heavy weather
of this” but Starmer had himself
conceded that he should have done
more to pursue Savile. Oh for
goodness’ sake, you two, grow up!
Whips and allies of the PM were
again dotted round the Tory back
benches.
Conor Burns, Johnson’s unofficial
batman, plonked himself near the
jumpy Aaron Bell. Burns is aPolitical Sketch
News Politics
Five more MPs’ letters ratchet
Henry Zeffman
Chief Political Correspondent
Steven Swinford Political Editor
B
oris Johnson is struggling
to implement a planned
shake-up of his Downing
Street operation, amid
concerns among civil
servants about his character and
long-term survival prospects.
Senior Whitehall sources said
permanent secretaries were
reluctant to put themselves
forward for the “poisoned chalice”
of a new role heading up the
Office of the Prime Minister.
Downing Street has also yet to
find a new job for Martin
Reynolds, Johnson’s principal
private secretary, who is widely
expected to be moved in a
reshuffle.
Meanwhile Lord Frost, the
former Cabinet Office minister
who was Britain’s chief Brexit
negotiator, ruled out a return to
Downing Street to help to run
Johnson’s operation as chief of
staff.
“The PM’s chief of staff and No
10 team must be fully committed
to delivering the government’s
agenda,” he said. “I believe policy
change is needed if the
government is going to succeed.
“In particular I don’t support the
decision to proceed with tax
increases, so obviously I could not
return to help implement it.”
Among names to have been
touted for the new Downing Street
permanent secretary role include
Antoni Romeo, the permanent
secretary in the Ministry of
Justice, and Sarah Healey, who
runs the Department of Digital,
Culture, Media and Sport.
However, Romeo has let it be
known that she has no interest in
the job and Healey, who has
helped No 10 in the fallout from
the Gray report and is seen a
favourite, is also understood to
have reservations.
One source said there was a
widespread feeling among
permanent secretaries that they
would be “mad” to give up
running their existing departments
to go into Downing Street “when
there’s a very good chance there
will be a new prime minister in a
year’s time.”Run No 10?
No thanks
Oliver Wright Policy Editor
Steven Swinford Political EditorBoris Johnson on
the attack as Sir
Keir Starmer and
Angela Rayner
look on, left