Boris Johnson pictured outside Downing Street on February 2
(Picture: REUTERS)Pressure on Boris Johnson continued to mount on Sunday as a Tory peer said there was a “strong case for change” at the top of Government.
However Lord Gavin Barwell said he does not think there is “a chance in hell” that the Prime Minister will voluntarily step down.
It comes amid reports on Sunday that the prime minister’s shadow whipping operation believe at least 35 letters of no confidence in Mr Johnson have already been submitted to the chair of the Conservatives’ 1922 Committee Sir Graham Brady.
According to the Sunday Times, Downing Street believes Mr Johnson is in “the danger zone” and that the 54-letter threshold needed to call a vote could soon be reached.
It comes as senior Tory MP Sir Charles Walker – previously one of Mr Johnson’s most loyal supporters – said it was now “inevitable” that he would be ousted over the Downing Street ‘partygate’ storm.
Sir Charles told The Observer: “It is an inevitable tragedy. It is going to end in him going, so I just want him to have some agency in that. It is just not going to get better.”
It follows a week of turmoil for the Prime Minister, after it was revealed the Met Police are investigating a number of Downing Street gatherings under lockdown which Mr Johnson is said to have attended.
Speaking on, Sky’s Trevor Phillips On Sunday programme, Lord Barwell said a leadership change would be good for the Conservatives and the country.
He said: “On the moral issue, I find it very, very difficult to defend the way in which he has run Number 10 and the way in which he has tried to cover up what’s happened.
“And on the pragmatic test, which your viewers will probably have less sympathy with, about what’s the right thing for the Conservative Party to do? - I am very sceptical about whether it’s going to be possible for him to restore his standing with the British public.
“So my inclination is that the Conservative Party would be better making a change and I also think, for the good of the country in terms of trust and faith in our politics, there’s a strong case for change. But it’s not up to me to make a decision. Ultimately, this is a decision that, up until the next election at least, is one for Conservative MPs.”
Lord Barwell, the former Downing Street chief of staff to Theresa May, added: “I don’t think there’s a chance in hell that the Prime Minister is going to voluntarily resign.
“He’s going to stay there unless Conservative MPs remove him or unless he loses an election. And so, you know, I don’t see any prospect of him voluntarily standing down.”
Meanwhile, former Conservative leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith said the Downing Street partygate saga and its aftermath has been “hugely damaging” and the public are “very angry”.
He told the BBC’s Sunday Morning politics programme: “Just the revelations about what’s been going on in Downing Street, when others were clearly obeying the rules and people in Downing Street somehow managed to think that those sort of rules weren’t applying to them at the time, no matter what they were doing.
“So it’s hugely damaging, damaging to the public, it’s cut through to them. They’re very angry about it. Many of them have seriously lost trust.
“These are big, big crises that are hitting the Government and the Prime Minister”.
Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng defended Mr Johnson’s leadership and said it was not inevitable that the PM would have to step down.
After Sir Charles claimed that was the case, Mr Kwarteng told Trevor Phillips On Sunday on Sky News: “He’s entitled to his view, as I’m entitled to mine.
“And I have to say Trevor, you know this, lots and lots of people have said things are inevitable and they never happened over the last few years, and I just want to wait and see.”
