The resentment of Conservative Party MPs towards Boris Johnson over the so-called 'partygate' took on greater proportions on Tuesday night,[/B] the Downing Street party scandal amidst a lockdown.
Almost immediately after the British Prime Minister said on Tuesday afternoon that no one had warned him that the drinks party he attended in the garden of Downing Street on 20 May 2020 was not a working meeting and broke the rules, more than 20 Conservative MPs met to discuss their moves.
These are MPs who entered the House of Commons in the last election in 2019 and represent the so-called "Red Wall" - constituencies in central and northern England that have traditionally supported Labour but voted for Boris Johnson having been persuaded by the promised benefits of Brexit and the agenda of upgrading their areas.
At the same time, Boris Johnson's former senior adviser Dominic Cummings has confirmed that he has been called to give evidence to the inquiry into the parties conducted by state official Sue Gray. His summons follows his claim that he had warned the Prime Minister that the May 20 party was in breach of lockdown rules and should have been cancelled, but was ignored.
According to reports, up to 20 of the MPs who met on Tuesday plan to submit letters of no confidence in the Prime Minister to the relevant party body, the 1922 Committee, on Wednesday afternoon. One MP, moreover, said she had already submitted letters to the committee on behalf of other colleagues.
Fifty-four letters, or 15% of the Conservative parliamentary group, are needed to trigger an automatic vote to remove Boris Johnson. The only person who knows the exact number is the Chairman of the 1922 Committee, Sir Graham Brady, but he will not make an announcement until a sufficient number of letters have been received.
By Tuesday morning it was estimated that between 20 and 35 letters had been submitted. The latest estimates from MPs who are no longer hiding their displeasure with the Prime Minister say that if the 54 letters have not been collected already or within Wednesday, it will most likely not be long after the imminent release of the findings of the inquiry into Ms Gray's party revelations.
One of the Red Wall MPs, Christian Wakeford has become the seventh Conservative MP to publicly back Boris Johnson's resignation, announcing that he has already submitted a letter of no confidence.
Another MP, Pauline Latham, told Times Radio that the Prime Minister cannot say he did not know the rules after he made them and that if it is proven that he misled parliament about what he knew he should resign. Her criticism was a reference to Mr Johnson's statements this afternoon, which were described by another frustrated MP as "bad amateur dramatics."
According to a Times investigation, 58 ruling party MPs, including junior ministers, have criticised the Prime Minister for his stance on partygate either in statements, social media posts or letters to angry constituents.
On the other hand, Conservative ministers and MPs have defended the Prime Minister, accusing their "rebel" colleagues of disloyalty to the man who put them in Parliament. A leading MP suggested it was a "small group of colleagues who were misbehaving", while indicative of the tension within the Tories was the statement attributed to another MP that the rebels were "a bunch of nobodies."
Source: CNA
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