Ex-minister Nick Gibb has called on Boris Johnson to resign, piling further pressure on the prime minister as he seeks to stave off a backbench rebellion.
Mr Gibb, the long-serving former schools minister, on Friday night became the 15th Conservative MP to publicly announce he had submitted a letter of no-confidence in the PM.
His intervention came hours after Red Wall MP Aaron Bell also called for Mr Johnson to go.
Mr Bell declared the prime minister’s position was “untenable” because of his handling of the Partygate scandal.
Meanwhile the PM has been trying to win over unruly backbenchers – as No 10 insiders warned the increasingly isolated prime minister is becoming “unpredictable and erratic”.
In the latest stage of his desperate bid to stave off a mutiny by Tory MPs, Mr Johnson announced the creation of backbench committees to advise on government policy and vowed he would order cabinet ministers to take their views seriously.
But after the resignation of five key aides less than 24 hours, some supporters of the PM were urging him to short-circuit plots to remove him by calling a vote on his future himself.
The prime minister tried to put a positive gloss on the exodus of senior officials from 10 Downing Street by quoting The Lion King this morning.
“Change is good,” he told those remaining following the string of departures.
