Boris Johnson was hit with fresh turmoil on Friday as a fifth No10 aide left and he was warned by a senior Tory MP to “shape up or ship out”.
In a sign of his determination to stay in office, the Prime Minister started a clear-out of Downing Street last night to “take charge” and appease rebellious backbench Tory MPs demanding changes to the operation. But his attempt to gain control of an increasingly febrile situation at
Westminster was rocked on Friday by:
- Reports that No10 policy unit member Elena Narozanski had also quit. She is understood to have been a close colleague of former policy unit chief Munira Mirza who resigned yesterday with a stinging attack on Mr Johnson for wrongly accusing Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer of failing to prosecute sex offender Jimmy Savile.
- Huw Merriman, Conservative chair of the Commons transport committee, stepped up the pressure on the Prime Minister as Tory MPs consider whether to push for a change of leadership. “I’m deeply troubled by what’s going on,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme. “We all know that if the Prime Minister doesn’t ship up, then they have to shape out [sic], and that’s exactly what happened when this Prime Minister took over.”
- Ministers and MPs loyal to Mr Johnson insisted the sudden resignations of Ms Mirza and three key senior aides on Thursday night — dubbed the “long night of the knives” — were all part of the Prime Minister’s sweeping plan to overhaul his administration. Energy minister Greg Hands told Sky News: “The Prime Minister was absolutely clear on Monday that there would be changes at the top of No10 and that is what he has delivered.”
- There were signs that the overhaul was winning support among Tory MPs with veteran Conservative MP John Redwood tweeting this morning: “Good to see big changes at Downing Street.” But Lord Barwell, Theresa May’s former chief of staff, claimed several ministers were considering their positions. He told Today: “When you talk to government ministers privately, large numbers of them are deeply, deeply uncomfortable, both with what has originally happened but even more so with the way the Prime Minister has behaved subsequently. And I think lots of people are considering the dilemma that Munira clearly faced.”
The Downing Street resignations came days after the Government published the interim partygate report by top civil servant Sue Gray which concluded there had been a failure of leadership at No10 and identified 12 different events which were now being investigated by the Met Police.
Following the publication of the report, Mr Johnson apologised and told MPs he would shake up his No10 team.
But former Downing Street advisers said the resignations of Principal Private Secretary Martin Reynolds, chief of staff Dan Rosenfield and communications chief Jack Doyle had been rushed out following Ms Mirza’s decision to quit.
In a stinging attack on Mr Johnson, Ms Mirza wrote: “I believe it was wrong for you to imply this week that Keir Starmer was personally responsible for allowing Jimmy Savile to escape justice. There was no fair or reasonable basis for that assertion. This was not the normal cut-and-thrust of politics; it was an inappropriate and partisan reference to a horrendous case of child sex abuse.”
No10 quickly announced that the Conservative MP Andrew Griffith would replace Ms Mirza, who had been one of Mr Johnson’s closest aides dating back to his days as Mayor of London.
On Friday he tweeted: “I am sad about Munira’s decision to leave but I look forward to helping the excellent No10 policy unit team, my Parliamentary colleagues and ministers all work together to deliver a focused agenda based on strong Conservative principles.”
Mr Johnson’s long-term future still rests with Conservative MPs who must decide whether or not to push for a no confidence vote in the Prime Minister. A total of 54 Tory MPs need to submit a letter to the chair of the Tory 1922 backbench committee to force a vote with 13 so far publicly calling for him to quit.
Meanwhile another Conservative MP has called for Boris Johnson to resign.
Writing in The Telegraph, Nick Gibb, MP for Bognor Regis and Littlehampton, said his constituents were “furious about the double standards” and he said the Prime Minister had been “inaccurate” in statements to the Commons.
Mr Gibb said: “The Prime Minister accepted the resignation of Allegra Stratton for joking about a Christmas party that she hadn’t attended, but he won’t take responsibility for those that he did attend. I am sorry to say that it is hard to see how it can be the case that the Prime Minister told the truth.”
He said there was still support for the Prime Minister in his constituency, but that voters were also questioning whether they could trust Mr Johnson.
The MP said: “To restore trust, we need to change the Prime Minister.”
Mr Gibb’s intervention brings the total number of MPs who have publicly called for Mr Johnson to go to 15, but privately the number is likely to be higher.
With Cabinet ministers jockeying for position ahead of a possible leadership race, Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s decision to distance himself from Mr Johnson over his attack on Sir Keir has sparked further speculation that he could be lining up a campaign to replace him.
A day after unveiling a £9 billion package of support to ease the impact of rising energy bills, the Chancellor used an article in The Sun to set out his vision for the UK economy.
In a clear reference to the allegations of lockdown-busting parties in Downing Street, he wrote: “We have always been the party of sound money — we will always continue to be on my watch — and that is the only kind of party I am interested in.” Mr Sunak had earlier publicly distanced himself from the PM’s original Jimmy Savile comment about Sir Keir, saying: “Being honest, I wouldn’t have said it.”
