A Tory MP today admitted it was “inevitable” that some ministers voted against Boris Johnson in last night’s confidence vote.
Ben Bradley, Conservative MP for Mansfield, said the result suggested some MPs on the government payroll voted to oust the prime minister.
The PM won a confidence vote in his leadership by 211 to 148 but it means more than 40 per cent of his MPs want him gone.
Bradley, who backs the PM, said Johnson knew he never had the “unanimous support” of Tory MPs because that is the nature of broad church political parties.
When it was put to him that 75 per cent of Tory backbenchers did not vote for the PM, Bradley told Sky News: “That’s guesswork really, it’s impossible to know who - payroll or non-payroll - voted in which particular way.”
Asked if he thought some ministers or cabinet members would have voted to get rid of the prime minister, he replied: “I think when you look at the numbers, that’s inevitable, in reality.
“But obviously it’s a secret ballot and we’ll probably never know the exact kind of divide there.”
Badly wounded, Johnson used a cabinet meeting on Tuesday morning to insist the government was getting “on with the job”.
Allies have rallied round him, but former Tory leader Lord Hague said “the damage done to his premiership is severe” and he should quit rather than prolong the agony.
The scale of the opposition was greater than that seen in 2018 when Theresa May faced a confidence vote. She was ultimately forced out within months.
Johnson faces further tests with tricky by-elections on June 23 in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, and Tiverton and Honiton in Devon.
Labour will try to heap further pressure on Johnson by asking MPs to vote on Tuesday to adopt a package of recommendations put forward by a sleaze watchdog aimed at improving standards in Westminster.
Meanwhile, the Lib Dems are pushing for a Commons confidence vote in the PM as a whole after Johnson survived the Tory process, although there is no date fixed for the move and it is unlikely to be successful.