Boris Johnson has said he intends to "hang on in there", despite multiple resignations and open Tory revolt over his leadership.
The Prime Minister, who arrived in the Commons chamber to cheers and boos, told MPs he planned to “go on and discharge the mandate we have been given". The comments came as ministers and aides continued to submit their resignations and call on Mr Johnson to go.
The mass walk out of ministers comes after accusations Number 10 tired to "cover up" the "inappropriate behaviour" of former deputy chief whip Chris Pincher. Mr Pincher, the MP for Tamworth, was suspended as a Conservative Party MP last week over allegations he groped two men at a private members' club in London.
Read more: Boris Johnson clinging on after Chancellor Rishi Sunak and Health Secretary Sajid Javid resign
Tory MP Tim Loughton led the charge from backbenches at Prime Minister's Questions, asking Mr Johnson if there were “any circumstances” in which he should resign.
The Prime Minister replied: “Clearly if there were circumstances in which I felt it was impossible for the Government to go on and discharge the mandate that we have been given or if I felt, for instance, that we were being frustrated in our desire to support the Ukrainian people… then I would.
“But frankly the job of a Prime Minister in difficult circumstances when he has been handed a colossal mandate is to keep going and that’s what I’m going to do.”
The Prime Minister’s authority had already been damaged prior to the Pincher scandal by a confidence vote which saw 41% of his own MPs withdraw their support in June. The loss of crunch by-elections in Wakefield and Tiverton and Honiton later that month also triggered the resignation of party chairman Oliver Dowden, while there is still lingering anger over coronavirus lockdown-busting parties in Downing Street.
Tory MPs are also uneasy about the Government’s high-spending, high-taxing approach as a result of the response to the pandemic. Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer branded Mr Johnson's Commons performance "a pathetic spectacle".
Addressing the Tory ministers who continue to serve Mr Johnson, he added: “As for those who are left, only in office because no-one else is prepared to debase themselves any longer. The charge of the lightweight brigade. Have some self-respect.
“For a week he’s had them defending his decision to promote a sexual predator, anyone with anything about them would be long gone from his frontbench. In the middle of a crisis, doesn’t the country deserve better than a z-list cast of nodding dogs?”
Mr Johnson replied: “It’s exactly when times are tough and when the country faces pressures on the economy and pressures on their budgets, and when we have the biggest war in Europe for 80 years, that is exactly the moment that you’d expect a Government to continue with its work, not to walk away, and to get on with our job and to focus on the things that matter to the people of this country.”
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