Senior Conservative MP Tobias Ellwood has revealed he will submit a letter of no confidence in Boris Johnson today.
In a fresh blow for the beleaguered prime minister, the chair of the Defence Select Committee said the Tory Party was sliding into a “very ugly place”.
It makes Ellwood the eleventh Tory MP to publicly call on Johnson to go - along with Caroline Nokes, Andrew Bridgen, David Davis and Andrew Mitchell.
Last night another Tory MP Charles Walker called on the PM to consider his position.
“We’re better than this, we must seek to improve our standards and rise above where we are today.”
- Tobias Ellwood MP
If the powerful backbench 1922 Committee receives 54 letters of no confidence from Conservative MPs, it could trigger a leadership contest.
Former minister Ellwood told Sky News: “This is just horrible for all MPs to continuously have to defend this to the British public.
“The government’s acknowledged the need for fundamental change, culture, make-up, discipline, the tone of No10, but the strategy has been one, it seems, of survival, of rushed policy announcements like the navy taking over the migrant Channel crossings.
“And attacking this week Keir Starmer with Jimmy Savile…I mean who advised the prime minister to say this? We’re better than this, we must seek to improve our standards and rise above where we are today.”
Johnson’s government has been engulfed in scandal as the Metropolitan Police service investigates gatherings at the heart of government during lockdown.
The PM has also come under fire for a baseless slur he made about Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer in the Commons - accusing him of “failing to prosecute Jimmy Savile” when he was director of public prosecutions.
The MP for Bournemouth East added: “I don’t think the prime minister realises how worried colleagues are in every corner of the party, backbenchers and ministers alike, that this is all only going one way and will invariably slide towards a very ugly place.
“I believe it’s time for the prime minister to take a grip of this; he himself should call a vote of confidence rather than waiting for the inevitable 54 letters to be eventually submitted.
“It’s time to resolve this completely so the party can get back to governing, and, yes, I know the next question you will ask, I will be submitting my letter today to the 1922 Committee.”
Earlier, Northern Ireland Select Committee chairman and North Dorset Tory MP Simon Hoare also called for the Savile remarks to be withdrawn.