LONDON (The Guardian) - Four Conservative MPs have called for Boris Johnson to resign in the aftermath of the Sue Gray report, saying they cannot reconcile themselves with his previous statements on Partygate.
The former health minister Stephen Hammond said he had submitted a letter of no confidence in the prime minister to the chair of the 1922 Committee after the investigation confirmed a string of lockdown-busting parties took place in Downing Street.
Two others, David Simmonds and John Baron, said they had lost confidence in Johnson. A fourth, Angela Richardson, who quit as a parliamentary private secretary earlier in the year, said she would have resigned if she had been in Johnson’s position.
Nineteen MPs have publicly called for Johnson to quit, although two more have submitted and then withdrawn letters of no confidence, and at least three others have called for Johnson to resign but said they would not submit letters.
Hammond, who has a majority of just 628 in Wimbledon, said in a statement that the conclusions of the Gray report were damning.
Hammond hinted he had already submitted his letter to Sir Graham Brady, the chair of the 1922 Committee. “All I can do as a backbencher is speak out and submit a letter. I have said for several months I already have done all I can as a backbencher.”
The MP added that the prime minister “no longer enjoys my support” – but did not say whether he had submitted a no-confidence letter, 54 of which are needed to trigger a vote on Johnson’s leadership.
A Conservative lawmaker quit his role as an assistant to Britain’s interior minister on Friday, saying his work had been tarnished by the “toxic culture” in Downing Street that was detailed by investigations into lockdown-busting parties.
A damning official report on Wednesday documented a series of illegal COVID-19 lockdown parties at British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Downing Street office. Johnson said he took responsibility for the events but refused to quit.