Amid the Partygate fallout Boris Johnson is looking like an electoral liability – and the party is almost out of goodwill
When the Sue Gray report was first published, Boris Johnson’s supporters took comfort from the fact that it provoked little immediate backlash within the Tory party. While it made for grim reading, the sense was that there was no smoking gun or new revelation that would send Conservative MPs into overdrive. The main response was silence, rather than fresh calls for Johnson to go.
But in the days that have followed, a general malaise has set in. A steady trickle of no-confidence letters has been submitted, with nine more MPs coming out against Johnson. This puts the total of MPs who have questioned his position as party leader at 34. Given that 54 letters are required to trigger a confidence vote, it is now viewed as more likely than not that one will take place.
Katy Balls is deputy political editor of the Spectator
