Partygate: Boris Johnson in ‘yellow card territory’ after Sue Gray report, minister says

Boris Johnson is in “yellow card territory” after the publication of the long awaited Sue Gray report into the Partygate scandal, a government minister has said.

The comments from John Glen come amid a drip-feed of no confidence letters being submitted in the prime minister’s leadership, with one former Tory cabinet minister warning that discontent was spreading in the party.

It emerged on Saturday that Tory MP Anne Marie Morris, who had the whip restored just a fortnight ago, had resubmitted her letter of no confidence to Sir Graham Brady, the chairman of the Conservatives’ 1922 Committee.

Since the Partygate scandal emerged, around 24 Conservative MPs have publicly called on Mr Johnson to resign, with former health minister Steve Brine saying he still believed a no confidence vote was “inevitable”.

In a statement published earlier this week – but not discovered until Saturday – the Tory MP said he would not “defend the indefensible”, insisted: “Rule-makers cannot be law-breakers.”

Around a dozen have confirmed they have submitted a letter to Sir Graham, but the true figure could be higher given the process is carried out in secret.

Under the Conservative Party’s rulebook 15 per cent of all MPs – 54 in the current parliament – have to submit a letter of no confidence in order for a vote to be triggered on Mr Johnson’s leadership.

“All I can do as a backbencher is seek to trigger that process and (some time ago actually) I have done that,” Mr Brine added in his statement.

Appearing on BBC Radio 4’s Any Questions, Treasury minister Mr Glen said “everyone feels let down” by the events at the heart of government, and highlighted Mr Johnson’s apology to the public and MPs.

But Mr Glen admitted: “I recognise for some that apology will never be enough for the distress he has caused through what has happened in No 10.

“But I do think we have to see this in terms of the prime minister now having received that report, the Sue Gray report, he’s effectively I think we’re in yellow card territory.”

Mr Glen also revealed he had a “frank” meeting with the prime minister where he told Mr Johnson “how I felt and how my constituents felt, but he asked me to get on with the job of delivering the reforms that I need to in financial services”.

“What he did say is it’s important we get on and deliver, and as a member of his team, as a minister I will continue to do that. We’ve got to deliver on the levelling up agenda that we set out and we’re given that mandate and responsibility for.”

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, the senior Tory MP David Davis warned that discontent was spreading across the Conservative ranks due to MPs fearing the controversy around the Downing Street lockdown parties could cost them their seats.

“Nobody in the world could have made it plainer, I don’t think, that I want the prime minister to go – I haven’t changed my mind about that,” he said.

Asked whether discontent was spreading in the Conservative Party, the senior backbencher said: “There is no doubt about that, for two reasons. Number one, frankly they see their own seats disappearing in many cases, they see themselves losing the next election on the back of this.

“Also, it has a bad effect on the country… it is a distracting on everything you do and it doesn’t help the reputation of the country.”

But pointing to the premierships of both Theresa May and Sir John Major, the former Brexit secretary said party leadership trouble traditionally took a “long time” to be sorted out, adding: “I fear we will not resolve this until the latter part of the year”.

His warning of increasing mutiny followed new modelling from pollsters YouGov, suggesting the Conservatives would lose all but three of 88 battleground constituencies if a general election were held on Saturday – putting the government’s Commons majority in jeopardy.

The predicted outcome would see Mr Johnson’s own Uxbridge and South Ruislip seat “likely fall” into Labour hands and Red Wall seats such as Blyth Valley and Stoke-on-Trent North would revert back to Sir Keir Starmer’s opposition.

The survey of over 15,000 voters across the country also found that Labour had a five point lead in Wakefield ahead of a critical by-election in the constituency – a seat Mr Johnson’s party won in 2019 – on 23 June.

Robert Buckland – a former cabinet minister in Mr Johnson’s government – also told Radio 4’s The Week In Westminster programme that should the Tories experience “heavy defeats” in the Wakefield and Tiverton and Honiton by-elections next month then “changes will have to be made”.

However, the Tory MP said he hoped the party could avoid a loss on such a scale that it would “lead Conservative members to really fundamentally think again about who is to lead them”.