A long-serving former minister has joined the chorus of Conservative MPs calling for Boris Johnson to quit as he said the prime minister’s honesty.
Gibb, an ex-schools minister who served under three prime ministers, has also submitted a letter of no confidence to the chairman of the backbench Tory 1922 committee.
Writing in The Telegraph, Nick Gibb said: “To restore trust, we need to change the prime minister.”
The MP for Bognor Regis and Littlehampton said his constituents were “furious about the double standards” and he said the prime minister had been “inaccurate” in statements to the Commons.
Gibb said: “The prime minister accepted the resignation of Allegra Stratton for joking about a Christmas party that she hadn’t attended, but he won’t take responsibility for those that he did attend. I am sorry to say that it is hard to see how it can be the case that the prime minister told the truth.”
He said there was still support for the prime minister in his constituency, but that voters were also questioning whether they could trust Johnson.
Gibb’s intervention brings the total number of MPs who have publicly called for Johnson to go to 12, but privately the number is likely to be higher.
Earlier, Johnson emailed Conservative MPs vowing to give them a “direct line” into 10 Downing Street, HuffPost UK revealed.
The beleaguered prime minister told his MPs he understood the “deep importance” of engaging with them.
Little more than 40 minutes after the email landed in MPs’ inboxes, a “Red Wall” MP elected in 2019 confirmed he had submitted a letter of no confidence in Johnson.
Newcastle-under-Lyme MP Aaron Bell blamed the partygate scandal, saying it had left him with no choice.
Earlier today Downing Street was forced to deny Boris Johnson had “lost control” after five senior aides quit in 24 hours.
The drama kicked off yesterday afternoon with the shock resignation of one of Johnson’s closest allies – policy chief Munira Mirza.
No10 went into meltdown as the PM ordered a clear-out in a bid to shore up his troubled premiership.
Not only is Johnson under fire over the partygate scandal, he has faced fierce criticism over comments he made about Labour leader Keir Starmer.
Earlier this week, the PM attacked Starmer during a debate on the partygate scandal, accusing him of “failing to prosecute Jimmy Savile” while he was director of public prosecutions.
Despite a backlash, the PM has refused to apologise for the comment – something Mirza directly linked to her departure.
Johnson was yesterday publicly rebuked by chancellor Rishi Sunak, who told a press conference: “Being honest, I wouldn’t have said it.”
Health secretary Sajid Javid also distanced himself from the PM’s criticism of Starmer, saying the Labour leader deserved “absolute respect” for the job he did as director of public prosecutions.