Boris Johnson is braced for a series of Ministerial resignations as he prepares for an all but inevitable win in the Tory leadership contest today.
Sir Alan Duncan led the exodus of top Tories who will refuse to serve under Johnson when he resigned yesterday as a Foreign Office minister and immediately sought to take the new leader down with him.
The arch-Remainer joined Chancellor Philip Hammond and Justice Secretary David Gauke, who have both said they will quit if
Johnson becomes Prime Minister on Wednesday.
Former leadership candidate and International Development Secretary Rory Stewart also signalled in a tweet that he would not serve under Johnson.
In his resignation letter, Duncan said Brexit had been a “dark cloud” over Theresa May’s Government.
He also attempted to ambush Johnson on the way into Downing Street by demanding a Commons debate to give MPs a chance to say whether they supported the new Prime Minister.
But the request, which would not be binding no-confidence vote, was rejected by the Speaker.
Duncan said he was trying to avoid “mayhem later” by testing Johnson before he became PM.
He said: “If he has got the numbers to govern, then he can and should govern.
“But if he has not, in our constitution, he cannot.”
Duncan added that he was worried by the ex-foreign secretary’s “fly by the seat of his pants, haphazard” style and his ability to command the support of a majority of MPs was “untested and in doubt”.
Labour is backing away from holding a no-confidence motion on Johnson’s government this week because it would force anti-Johnson Tory MPs to rally round the new prime minister and simply boost his confidence.
On the eve of the Johnson’s coronation, polling of voter attitudes in four Scottish marginal seats reinforced the belief that Johnson is electorally toxic for Ruth Davidson’s party.
Johnson was seen as best suited to be Prime Minister in three out of four UK electoral battlegrounds surveyed by Politico-Hanbury.
In the Midlands, London and the North West, Johnson was ahead of his rival.
But in Scotland, the figures are reversed with just 19 per cent saying Johnson would be the best PM compared to 32 per cent who opted for Hunt.
A separate poll showed that a hard Brexit poses a huge political risk for the Conservative party.
The polling by ComRes for the campaign organisation 38 Degree, which did not take a position in the Brexit referendum, showed that
43 per cent of voters are “less likely” to back the Conservative Party in a no-deal Brexit.
The polling showed that both of the no-deal Brexit Tory leadership candidates, Johnson and Hunt, are deep in the red with voters on personal trust ratings, with 62 per cent reporting that they “distrust” Johnson and 61 per cent saying the same of Hunt.
