Plot to unseat Boris Johnson as British Prime Minister thickens as dozens of newly-elected and Red Wall MPs threaten to trigger a vote of no confidence.
Gatekeepers News reports that 55 is the number required to trigger a vote of and it is unclear how close the plotters are to reaching that figure.
Seven letters are known to have gone in already, but the process is designed to be secret and more may have been received by chairman of the 1922 Committee, Sir Graham Brady.
About 20 MPs reportedly held a secret lunchtime meeting at Westminster to coordinate the submission of the ‘no confidence’ letters.
Bishop Auckland MP Dehenna Davison and fellow Tory Alicia Kearns are believed to be ringleaders, while Gary Sambrook from Birmingham Northfield and Chris Loder from West Dorset are also thought to have had prominent roles.
On Tuesday, Johnson repeated that he wanted to “humbly apologise to people for misjudgments that were made” for allowing alleged parties to take place in No 10 during COVID-19 lockdown.
He insisted that he believed a ‘bring your own booze’ gathering in the garden at the height of lockdown had been a ‘work event’.
The Prime Minister issued a public apology to Queen Elizabeth over revelations that No 10 staff held two raucous parties on the eve of Prince Philip’s funeral, where Covid rules meant she had to sit alone.
Johnson, however, repeatedly refused to say whether he would resign if it was proved he intentionally misled parliament.
Gatekeepers News earlier reported that Johnson’s former communications chief, James Slack apologized “unreservedly” to Queen Elizabeth for a lockdown-breaching party in Downing Street on the eve of Prince Philip’s funeral last year.
Similarly, Kate Josephs, a former Director-General in the unit that coordinated the government COVID-19 response and is now chief executive at Sheffield City Council, said she was ‘truly sorry’ for a gathering held in the Cabinet Office to mark her leaving the civil service on December 17, 2020.
