Conservatives need a “complete break” from Boris Johnson, says an ex-minister
The Conservative Party needs a “complete break” from Boris Johnson said former cabinet minister Andrew Mitchell.
“It is clear to me from talking to colleagues… we need to have a complete break with the Boris years,” Mr Mitchell told the BBC.
“We need to have a leader who is unsullied, uncontaminated if you like, by the mistakes, particularly in the tone of the government as well as some of its actions.
“It needs to be someone clearly with experience, preferably both domestic experience and of an international department of state because these are very difficult times domestically and internationally.
“Finally, I think it does need to be someone who is patently moral and decent and can win back the vast numbers of Conservatives that we know have deserted the party from recent polling and recent by-elections.”
Boris Johnson ‘had curry with loyalists plotting future before reality dawned’
Boris Johnson ate a curry and was in fighting spirit saying “we can do this” before going to bed but by morning reality had dawned, it is reported.
Following the initial resignations of Rishi Sunak and Sajid Javid, gradually the prime minister lost more and more of his Conservative MPs during Wednesday leading to a total of 46 by the end of the day.
Yet Mr Johnson seemed as though he was going to doggedly fight to the end, refusing to give in as talk emerged of plans by the Conservative Party to change its rules to allow him to be ousted as leader.
But that was until he came out and addressed the media outside in the early afternoon of Thursday where he said that he would stand down and seemed to blame a “herd” instinct in Parliament.
Behind the scenes, it appears as though the scandal-hit prime minister was determined to tough it out on Wednesday night as he worked out with his remaining supporters in Downing Street how to fill the Cabinet vacancies.
