Boris Johnson's premiership sits on the brink this morning after more ministers and aides handed in their resignations.
Will Quince resigned as children and families minister, saying he could not accept being sent out to defend the Prime Minister on television with inaccurate information over the Chris Pincher row. Laura Trott quit as a ministerial aide, saying 'trust in politics is – and must always be – of the utmost importance, but sadly in recent months this has been lost'.
Robin Walker then announced he was resigning as school standards minister, saying that 'recent events have made it clear to me that our great party, for which I have campaigned all of my adult life, has become distracted from its core missions by a relentless focus on questions over leadership'. He told Mr Johnson the 'great achievements' of the government had been 'overshadowed by mistakes and questions about integrity'.
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Mr Walker added that the loss of Rishi Sunak and Sajid Javid 'reflects a worrying narrowing of the broad church that I believe any Conservative government should seek to achieve'. Treasury minister John Glen then announced his resignation, telling Boris Johnson 'I can no longer reconcile my commitment to the role” with “the complete lack of confidence I have in your continuing leadership of our country'.
This comes after the former chancellor and health secretary both handed in their Cabinet resignations last night. Mr Sunak said 'the public rightly expect government to be conducted properly, competently and seriously', adding: "I believe these standards are worth fighting for and that is why I am resigning."
Mr Javid said the British people 'expect integrity from their government' but voters now believed Mr Johnson’s administration was neither competent nor 'acting in the national interest'. The pair were swiftly replaced on Tuesday night, with Nadhim Zahawi promoted to be the new Chancellor and Steve Barclay becoming Health Secretary.
Mr Zahawi hinted at reversing a planned rise in corporation tax as part of the effort to restore trust between the leadership and Tory MPs.
But the Cabinet reshuffle does not appear to have persuaded Mr Johnson’s critics to hold fire. Tory former Brexit minister Lord David Frost supported Mr Sunak and Mr Javid's resignations, noting they had done so after he similarly stepped down in December.
The Prime Minister’s fate may now ultimately lie with backbench MPs if the Tory 1922 Committee’s rules are changed to allow another confidence vote within 12 months. Bob Blackman said the 1922 Committee will be 'reaching a decision on the dates and the process' for elections at a meeting on Wednesday.
The committee’s joint-executive secretary told Talk TV: "At the moment, as I say, the executive committee has not agreed the timing or the process for the elections. However, what we have confirmed already – so this is what’s in the public domain – what (is) agreed is that the elections will take place before the summer recess.
"You don’t have to be a genius to work out that the last week before the summer recess is not a sensible time to hold elections, when colleagues may be away."
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