Boris Johnson has been warned the “fuse is getting closer to the dynamite” of a no confidence vote as another Tory MP withdrew support.
Carlisle Conservative MP John Stevenson said on Tuesday that he had submitted a letter of no confidence in Prime Minister.
It brings it to 41 the number of MPs publicly criticising the Prime Minister after the Sue Gray report although the number who have actually submitted letters of no confidence could be lower.
On Tuesday, former cabinet minister Andrea Leadsom signalled her unhappiness with the PM, accusing him of “unacceptable failings” of leadership but stopped short of sending a letter to the chair of the 1922 committee.
Sir Graham Brady, the chair of the Tory grouping, needs to receive 54 letters before triggering a no-confidence vote and 179 Tory MPs would have to move against Boris Johnson to remove him as leader.
Speaking to Times Radio, former Tory leader and cabinet minister Lord Hague said: “I said this was a slow fuse. Well such a letter from I guess a senior figure, Andrea Leadsom is the fuse.
Hague added: “The fuse is getting closer to the dynamite here and it’s speeding up.
“So I think that’s just another indication the Conservative Party is moving faster towards a vote of confidence or no confidence.
“So a leadership ballot, which I said earlier could come next week, or at the end of June, a few more letters like that, and it will come next week.”
Brady is the only person who knows the number of letters that have been sent in.
It is expected that he would wait until parliament returns from the current recess next Monday, after the Queen’s Jubilee celebrations, before revealing whether the threshold of 54 letters has been met.
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