Bye bye, Boris

Boris Johnson is clinging on to power by a thread after an extraordinary day in Westminster, possibly the last of his premiership, writes Mattie Brignal.

A tsunami of ministerial resignations today – 36 and counting – has stripped the PM of any lingering authority, spelling his political doom.

The question is: when will he go?

Johnson has been given a short stay of execution by the 1922 backbench committee of Tory MPs whose executive has the power to bring forward a confidence vote by changing its rules.

There will be elections to the new executive on Monday, and the committee’s leadership has signalled that it expects the rules to change then. If that happens, there will be another confidence vote next week, and Johnson will lose.

This is the bleak reality that the PM is refusing to face. True to form, Johnson insisted this afternoon that he will “of course” still be in charge tomorrow, even as all the evidence points to the opposite.  

A Cabinet delegation urging Johnson to throw in the towel – reportedly consisting of chief whip Chris Heaton-Harris, Grant Shapps, Brandon Lewis, Simon Hart, and even the newly minted Chancellor, Nadhim Zahawi – is understood to be locked away with the PM in No.10.

Johnson’s Cabinet colleagues want him to rule out calling a snap election, reflecting a fear among Tory MPs that if the PM is told he’s lost their confidence, he could go to the Queen and ask for a dissolution of parliament to try to get a fresh mandate. It would be highly unusual, but this hasn’t stopped him before.  

Michael Gove, the housing secretary, is reported to have told the PM the game was up earlier in the day. Gove was noticeably absent from the front bench at PMQs where Sajid Javid, who resigned last night, delivered a cool but devastating attack on the PM. While the former health secretary isn’t much of an orator, his point hit home: “Enough is enough”.

Yet it was Gary Sambrook, one of the current members of the 1922 executive, who made one of the most damning indictments of the session. He told the Commons that Johnson, at a meeting to shore up support among Tory MPs last night, had criticised colleagues for not doing more to stop Chris Pincher drinking on the night in question at the Carlton Club. “The Prime Minister constantly tries to deflect from the issue,” Sambrook said, “always tries to blame other people for mistakes and there is nothing left for him to do other than take responsibility and resign.”

Could the pressure from Cabinet colleagues be enough to convince the PM he should jump before he’s pushed? Don’t bet on it – a less dignified end seems far more likely.

Much like when Boris-the-card got stuck on a zipwire at the 2012 Olympics, he is marooned, helpless, and clutching a union jack flag. But he’s not laughing this time.