More senior Tories have called for Boris Johnson to resign after he apologised for attending a party in the garden of No 10 during the height of the first lockdown.
Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross led at least 14 Holyrood Tories in calling for Mr Johnson to resign. They were joined by senior Tory backbencher William Wragg and vocal Johnson critic Sir Roger Gale, who described the PM as a “dead man walking” politically.
A former minister told The Independent that Tory MPs in double figures had submitted letters of no confidence in the prime minister.
A leadership contest would be triggered if 1922 Committee chairman Sir Graham Brady receives 54 letters of no confidence.
Rishi Sunak defended Mr Johnson, saying that he was “right to apologise”. The chancellor followed cabinet colleagues in saying that he would await the findings of Sue Gray’s investigation into the party.
