Scandal-hit Johnson remains ‘very positive’ despite nine votes of no confidence
Culture secretary Nadine Dorries has suggested those who are against the prime minister are ‘Remainers’ and that scandal-hit Johnson remains “very positive”.
It comes as a ninth Tory MP, Nick Gibb, handed in a letter of no confidence in the prime minister to the 19922 Committee last night, after MP Aaron Bell confirmed he had submitted his own yesterday afternoon.
“We need to change the prime minister,” Gibb wrote in The Daily Telegraph, adding his constituents were “furious about the double standards” amid the partygate scandal.
Boris Johnson will face a vote of confidence in his leadership should 54 members of his own party submit letters to 1922 Committee chairman Sir Graham Brady.
“What Nick (Gibb) has done is very disappointing,” Dorries told Sky News. “But what I would say is this is an absolute minority in the Conservative party because Boris Johnson delivers.”
“There are 365 Conservative MPs and I can promise you that the vast, vast majority of those MPs – 97 per cent of them – will be out in their constituencies today… delivering on the promises that they have made to their constituents and that Boris Johnson has made to them,” she said.
“I understand why the media do this, and of course it has to be reported, but the number of MPs who are former ministers, Remainers, those who have called for both Theresa May, David Cameron and every prime minister to go in the Conservative party, they of course are disappointing.”
Johnson also saw five of his aides resign in just 24 hours in the tail-end of this week, following a false claim about opposition leader Keir Starmer and late paedophile Jimmy Savile.
Speaking to Times Radio, she added: “There are a small number of voices, whether they are people who were ardent supporters of Remain, who see this as their last opportunity to reverse Brexit.”