Boris Johnson is battling to save his premiership after a bruising PMQs saw fresh questions over Number 10's lockdown parties and a Tory defection to the Labour benches.
Red Wall MP Christian Wakeford said the country needed a Government that “upholds the highest standards of integrity and probity”, telling Mr Johnson that “both you and the Conservative Party as a whole have shown themselves incapable of offering the leadership and Government this country deserves”.
His move was announced just minutes before PMQs, with the timing calculated to cause maximum damage to Mr Johnson.
Go here for the latest regional affairs and North East politics news
Mr Wakeford won Bury South, which had elected a Labour MP at every election since 1997, in 2019.
Labour leader Keir Starmer welcomed Mr Wakeford saying: “The Labour Party has changed and so has the Conservative Party. He and anyone else who wants to build a new Britain built on decency, security is welcomed in my Labour Party.”
Conservative former minister David Davis also called for the Prime Minister to resign at PMQs.
Mr Davis told Boris Johnson he had spent weeks defending him from “angry constituents”, including by reminding them of the “successes of Brexit”.
He said: “I expect my leaders to shoulder the responsibility for the actions they take. Yesterday he did the opposite of that. So, I will remind him of a quotation which may be familiar to his ear: Leopold Amery to Neville Chamberlain.
“You have sat too long here for any good you have been doing. In the name of God, go.”
In a question to Boris Johnson, Sir Keir said: “Last week he said he didn’t realise he was at a party and surprise, surprise no-one believed him.
“So this week he has got a different defence – nobody warned him that it was against the rules.”
He added: “Why on earth does he think his new defence is going to work?”
Mr Johnson said the questions would be "fully addressed" by Sue Gray's inquiry into the partygate affair.
On Mr Wakeford's defection, the Prime Minister was bullish, saying: "The Conservative Party won Bury South for the first time in a generation under this Prime Minister on an agenda of uniting and levelling up and delivering for the people of Bury South. We will win again in Bury South.”
The exchange comes after a number of Tory MPs elected in 2019 are reported to have met to discuss ousting Mr Johnson.
So far, seven Tory MPs have publicly called for Mr Johnson to go, far short of the 54 required to submit letters of no confidence to the backbench 1922 Committee – but privately, many more believe the Prime Minister’s time is up.
Andrew Bridgen, one of the seven, said he expected 20 more letters to go in to 1922 Committee chairman Sir Graham Brady from 2019-intake MPs on Wednesday.
“I would have thought that will encourage a considerable number of others who are wavering to put their letters in,” he said.
“I think will we get to the threshold of 54 this week. Graham Brady will announce we are having a confidence vote next week, probably Tuesday or Wednesday.”
For the latest local breaking news direct to your inbox as it happens, go here to sign up to our free newsletter
