Prime Minister Boris Johnson ’s leadership is in the balance after angry members of his own party reportedly met to plot his downfall.
A minister has called it the Pork Pie Plot because the MP for Melton Mowbray is alleged to have been involved, the Mirror reports.
And the result of that meeting is that up to 20 of the 2019 intake of Tories reportedly plan to submit letters of no confidence in Mr Johnson's leadership tomorrow.
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One Tory MP was quoted as saying: “His time has gone.” Another said: “I think we’ve done it... The whips operation completely backfired. Colleagues now have a sense they aren’t alone.”
It comes as it was revealed senior civil servant Sue Gray will quiz Dominic Cummings as part of her party gate probe following his claims Mr Johnson lied to Parliament.
A Government source said: "Sue wants the inquiry to be as robust as possible. He is going to be interviewed by the time the inquiry concludes."
Mr Johnson has been accused of lying to the House of Commons by claiming he thought that a "bring your own booze" garden party on May 20, 2020 was a work event.
In explosive claims, Mr Cummings had claimed the PM "waved aside" concerns about the rule-busting gathering at the height of lockdown.
He claimed that he and "other eyewitnesses" would be willing to swear under oath that senior officials had warned the event was against the rules.
In a deeply uncomfortable broadcast interview, Mr Johnson claimed that "nobody told me" the No 10 garden party was "against the rules".
This was even though his own Government drew up the rules which millions of other Brits had followed at the time.
During Tuesday's visit to a North London hospital, Mr Johnson repeatedly refused to rule out resigning if he was found to have misled Parliament.
"Well, let's see what the report says," he said.
Mr Johnson sparked widespread disbelief last week at PMQs when he apologised for the gathering but claimed he "implicitly believed" it was work related.
Downing Street has fiercely denied claims by multiple senior journalists that two officials told Mr Johnson the event was “a party” before it happened.
Dominic Raab claimed that Mr Johnson would "normally" be expected to resign if he intentionally misled Parliament.
The deputy PM then remarked: “There was speculation that the May 20 party was held in my honour to thank me, it’s just ridiculous.”
When Sky News presenter Kay Burley exclaimed “so it was a party!” he replied: “No, exactly, er, no, er, the, no no no no.
“This is the claim that was made, it was nonsense, I wasn’t invited and I didn’t attend.”
Rishi Sunak, tipped as Mr Johnson's most likely successor, said "of course" he believed Mr Johnson's account to Parliament but refused to give him his full backing, abruptly leaving the interview after being grilled over whether he had lied.
Downing Street has launched 'Operation Red Meat', a slew of policy announcements designed to appeal to the Tory base, including on migrant crossings and BBC funding.
In another attempt to appease disgruntled Tory MPs, the Government will set out plans to relax the remaining Covid restrictions in England on Wednesday.
The PM is also claimed to have triggered 'Operation Big Dog' to save himself by sacking several senior aides.
Mr Johnson confirmed that he had also been interviewed by Ms Gray.
On Tuesday he told journalists: "I do humbly apologise to people for misjudgments that were made.
"But that is the very, very best of my recollection about this event.
"That's what I've said to the inquiry."
He publicly apologised to the Queen over claims of two separate parties in No 10 the night before Prince Phillip's funeral, where the monarch was forced to sit grieving alone.
"I can only renew my apologies both to Her Majesty and to the country for misjudgments that were made, and for which I take full responsibility," he said.
Many Tory MPs are waiting for the result of Ms Gray's inquiry, which could be pushed back until next week, before deciding whether to trigger a confidence vote in the PM.
Exactly 54 letters need to be submitted, with reports suggesting that around half that number had already been reached.
Bury South MP Christian Wakeford became the seventh Tory to stick his head above the parapet and publicly confirm he had submitted his letter.
Ominously for the PM, he warned that some of his Red Wall colleagues “have written the letters but haven’t sent them in yet”.
Several Tories suggested they would rather wait until the May local elections - in which the party could be hammered - to get rid of the PM.
One furious Tory told the Mirror: "I don’t know where it goes from here.
"We are grinding slowly to 54, but if we get 54 he will win the no confidence vote and notionally we can’t do it for another year.
"If there is a leadership contest, Sunak will win easily - but the party will fight like ferrets in a sack."
Another Tory MP from an earlier intake said the mood against Mr Johnson was "calming down" among more experienced MPs and ministers.
The MP added: "But it's not among newer cohorts. There's a huge generational divide here as there was during the Owen Paterson affair.
"It will be the newer MPs who bring down the MP. I have never seen anything like it."
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