Boris Johnson has suffered a double by-election defeat and seen the chairman of the Tory party resign his post, claiming that the government “cannot go on with business as usual”.
Oliver Dowden stepped down as co-chair of the Conservative party in the wake of two expected by-election defeats in what could be the beginning of a cabinet rebellion against Johnson.
The results of the by-election votes, held on the sixth anniversary of the Brexit referendum, arrived within less than ten minutes of each other, at either side of 4am on Friday.
