Another Tory MP has called for prime minister Boris Johnson to quit after the prime minister was fined for breaching coronavirus laws.
Craig Whittaker, a former party whip, added chancellor Rishi Sunak, who was also issued with a fixed-penalty notice by the police, should also step down.
He becomes the second Conservative MP to urge their party leading to vacate No. 10, and comes soon after a justice minister quit over the controversy.
According to the Halifax Courier, the Calder Valley MP said during a Facebook Q and A: “I not only think that the prime minister should resign but I also think that Rishi Sunak should resign as well.
“Through this whole process it hasn’t been particularly clear that the prime minister broke any rules until of course he’s been issued with a fixed penalty notice this week.
“My expectation is that he and the chancellor should do the right thing and resign.
“The reality is that they’re not going to resign. We’ve seen that from the press and they’ve both issued apologies so I suspect we’ll end up where we are and moving on.”
The MP said he will not be submitting a letter to the 1922 Committee of backbench Tories, saying he expects the prime minister would win the vote which would detract from the government’s “day-to-day” business.
Earlier, Conservative peer David Wolfson said he had “no option” other than to resign over the “repeated rule-breaking, and breach of the criminal law, in Downing Street”.
Conservative MP Nigel Mills also said the prime minister’s position was untenable after he was found to have broken the rules he set.
However, Johnson’s position was safe for the time being, with politicians away from parliament for the Easter recess and numerous Tory critics arguing for immediate focus to be on the invasion of Ukraine.
Lord Wolfson, a justice minister since 2020, said in his resignation letter to Johnson that he has come to the “inevitable conclusion that there was repeated rule-breaking, and breaches of the criminal law, in Downing Street”.
He concluded that had no option but to resign considering “my ministerial and professional obligations to support and uphold the rule of law”.
The decision heaped pressure on Dominic Raab, whose Labour shadow Steve Reed pointed out as Justice Secretary is “constitutionally charged with upholding the law but is instead condoning law-breaking” by backing Mr Johnson.
Raab described Lord Wolfson as a “world-class lawyer” whose “wisdom and intellect will be sorely missed” in government.
Johnson wrote to the peer saying he was “sorry to receive” the resignation, while praising his “years of legal experience”.
More than 50 fines have been referred to the Acro Criminal Records Office since the Met’s inquiry started.
Speaking to broadcasters at his country residence, Chequers, on Tuesday, Johnson said it “did not occur” to him at the time that the party for which he was fined might be breaching Covid rules.
Sunak offered an “unreserved apology”, saying he understood that “for figures in public office, the rules must be applied stringently in order to maintain public confidence”.