LONDON (Parliament Politics Magazine): David Davis, a former member of cabinet, has joined demands for Boris Johnson to resign, imploring the prime minister, “In the name of God, go.”
He claimed that the Prime Minister had failed to accept responsibility for his actions during the Downing Street lockdown parties.
Christian Wakeford, Backbench Tory MP defected to Labour minutes before Prime Minister’s Questions commenced, prompting Mr Davis’s remarks.
During the tumultuous Commons session, the PM resisted numerous calls to resign.
Mr Wakeford’s defection and Mr Davis’s comments come as Mr Johnson battles to keep his job as Prime Minister after confessing to attending a drinks reception in Downing Street at the time of the initial lockdown.
Six Conservative MPs have publicly expressed their disapproval of the Prime Minister so far, but it is believed that more have sent letters to Sir Graham Brady, the backbench 1922 committee’s chairman, who conducts Tory leadership contests.
Six Conservative MPs have publicly expressed their disapproval of the Prime Minister so far, but it is believed that more have sent letters to Sir Graham Brady, the backbench 1922 committee’s chairman, who conducts Tory leadership contests.
There are rumours that the 54-letter threshold is required to trigger a vote of no confidence and a leadership election may be reached soon, but no official notification has been released.
One of those calling for Mr Johnson to resign, Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross, claimed a no-confidence vote was “near” and “coming closer.”
Mr Wakeford’s defection, however, appeared to be backfiring, according to a former cabinet minister, who said his actions had “provided an alternative target for rage” among Tory MPs.
Conservatives are being urged by the prime minister to not pass judgement on him until next week, when a report on parties at Number 10 by Sue Gray, senior civil servant, is released.
Mr Wakeford, Bury South MP wrote in his letter to Mr Johnson, “You and the Conservative Party as a whole have shown themselves incapable of offering the leadership and government this country deserves.”
Sir Keir Starmer, Labour’s leader, welcomed Mr Wakeford to the party and reiterated his call for Mr Johnson to go, saying his “absurd and unreliable defences” of No 10 parties were disintegrating.
But it was near the end of the session that Mr Davis made the most dramatic intervention, telling Mr Johnson that he had spent weeks defending him from “angry constituents.”
He said he expected his leaders to take responsibility for their acts. Mr Johnson did the exact reverse yesterday. As a result, he would remind him of a quote that may be known to him: Leopold Amery to Neville Chamberlain.
‘You have sat too long here for any good you have been doing. In the name of God, go.’
The Prime Minister claimed he had no idea “what [Mr Davis] is talking about,” but that he accepted “full responsibility for everything done in this government and throughout the pandemic.”
Mr Davis “misjudged the mood of colleagues,” according to head of the Northern Research Group of Red Wall Tory MPs, Jake Berry, the majority of whom won their seats from Labour in the 2019 general election.
However, he went on to say that “the next few weeks and months” would show if the former minister had been correct.
