Former minister Jesse Norman has submitted a no confidence letter in Boris Johnson, calling his response to the Partygate report “grotesque”.
In a letter to the prime minister posted on social media, the MP for Hereford and South Herefordshire said Mr Johnson had presided over “a culture of casual law-breaking” in Number 10.
Mr Norman said the prime minister’s current policy priorities were “deeply questionable” and that there were no circumstances in which he could serve in a government led by him.
He warned any breach of the Northern Irish Protocol would be “economically very damaging, politically foolhardy and almost certainly illegal”.
“You are the leader of the Conservative and Unionist party, yet you are putting the Union itself gravely at risk,” he wrote.
The MP also said the government’s Rwanda policy was “ugly, likely to be counterproductive and of doubtful legality” and that plans to privatise Channel 4 were “unnecessary and provocative”.
His comments came as health secretary Sajid Javid said he thought it was “likely” there would be a confidence vote.
Speaking to BBC Breakfast, Mr Javid said: “My understanding probably isn’t much more than yours because you’ll probably know, or many of your viewers will know, that to have what’s called the vote of confidence requires at least 54 of my colleagues to write into Sir Graham Brady, to ask for one.
“Now, will that happen? I don’t know. That’s that’s a decision for my colleagues. I think it’s likely that something like that will happen.”
“But it’s not what I think actually the country needs,” he added.
“I hope there isn’t – you have to be prepared but I think that what the country wants is for the government to get on and focus on the job at hand, which we are.”
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