By-election news - live: PM loses backing of more Tory MPs after disastrous defeats
Senior Tory MP says PM’s fall from power ‘is now a question of when, not if’
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Boris Johnson’s support among Tory MPs has ebbed to an all-time low after the Conservatives suffered two crushing by-election losses on Thursday.
Following the double defeats in Tiverton and Wakefield, one senior Conservative MP, who backed Mr Johnson in the no-confidence vote earlier this month, told The Independent that they had now changed their mind.
“I voted for Boris last time but I just can’t see any way out of it for him right now,” they said.
“It is now a question of when, not if. The public have made up their minds. We got it wrong in hanging on to John Major in the nineties and we can’t get it wrong a second time with Johnson.”
The former Tory leader Michael Howard has also urged Mr Johnson to step down, while a cabinet minister admitted that “the mood has shifted”.
Their statements came after the Tory party chairman Oliver Dowden resigned, citing the “disappointment” of the public over the Partygate scandal. “Someone must take responsibility,” he said.
Minister criticises Dowden’s decision to quit party chair role
Tory infighting has accelerated after the party’s defeat in the Devon and Yorkshire by-elections yesterday.
Conor Burns, the minister of state for Northern Ireland, said he was “disappointed” that Oliver Dowden had quit as Conservative party chair following the disappointing result.
Responding to former Tory leader Michael Howard’s call for Boris Johnson to resign, Mr Burns said: “I would simply say I will give the same loyalty to my party leader and my prime minister as Lord Howard expected of me when he was party leader.”
Stop threatening to rip up Northern Ireland Protocol, Sinn Fein tells British government
The British government must not commit “economic vandalism” by unilaterally scrapping parts of the Northern Ireland Protocol, Sinn Fein has said.
A bill that will remove checks over the Irish Sea - checks the UK government agreed to under the Withdrawal Agreement - will receive its second reading in Parliament on Monday.
Speaking on Friday, John O’Dowd, Stormont’s infrastructure minister, warned the Tory party against the move, saying it was unpopular in Northern Ireland.
“The attack on the protocol through this piece of legislation is an attack on international law. More importantly, it’s an attack on our business community, workers and families who are benefiting from it,” the Sinn Fein politician said.
“What Boris Johnson and others plan to do on Monday is economic vandalism and it should be stopped and stopped now,” he added.
Hancock rushes to PM’s defence
Former health secretary Matt Hancock has rushed to the defence of his party leader.
Amid fresh questions about Boris Johnson’s future in No 10, the Tory MP said his colleagues needed to “pull together” and work towards the next general election, which he admitted would be “challenging”.
Tory support for Boris Johnson ebbing after disastrous by-election defeats
Boris Johnson’s hold on the premiership is tonight in peril, amid signs that support for his leadership within the Conservative Party is ebbing away in the wake of a pair of disastrous by-election defeats.
As Labour seized back the totemic red-wall seat of Wakefield and Liberal Democrats overturned a record by-election majority to take “true blue” Tiverton & Honiton in Devon, one MP who backed Mr Johnson in a confidence vote less than three weeks ago told The Independent that he and others could no longer support the prime minister.
Tory support for Boris Johnson ebbing after disastrous by-election defeats
Party chairman quits and former leader calls on PM to go as Labour and Lib Dems claim scalps in red wall and Tory heartland
Video: Rwanda plan puts UK ‘out in front’ of the world, claims Johnson
Johnson defends policy of sending asylum seekers to Rwanda
The prime minister has defended his government’s attempts to send asylum seekers from the UK to Rwanda.
After noting the ongoing legal challenges against the move, Boris Johnson said: “I’m confident that we will be able to go ahead and develop a solution that I think who’s time has come.”
Speaking from the Rwandan capital Kigali, he added: “You’ve got to find a way of breaking the mode of people smugglers, people smugglers, people traffickers are doing a profoundly evil and dangerous thing and you have to find a way of stopping that.
“I’m confident that it will produce value for money.”
PM says Roe v Wade verdict ‘a big step backwards’ for US
Further to my earlier post on the same subject, here’s a video of Boris Johnson speaking out against the US Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v Wade:
By-election defeats cannot be ‘written off as just midterm blues’, says Tory MP
An unnamed Tory MP has said Boris Johnson must go because the by-election results cannot simply be “written off as just midterm blues”.
The politician, who spoke to PA Media on condition of anonymity, said: “When we suffered by-election losses during the Cameron years for instance, it was taken on the chin because the government back then was actually doing Conservative things.
“Their economic policy, for instance, was far more conservative than today’s literally 80-seat majority Conservative government. People in the party held their nerve because there was a long-term economic plan, which Cameron and Osborne were competent at selling.
“That’s why a loss in Tiverton and Honiton can’t just be shrugged off. It precipitates electoral disaster, which can only be avoided by replacing Boris Johnson with the better leadership the Conservative Party needs and deserves.”
Voices: Oliver Dowden’s resignation is worse news for Boris Johnson than the double by-election defeat
Boris Johnson’s departure from No 10 looks like a foregone conclusion, writes Andrew Grice.
He adds:
The resignation of Oliver Dowden as Conservative Party chair is more significant than the party’s double defeat in Thursday’s by-elections in Tiverton and Honiton and Wakefield. It matters because someone in the cabinet has finally had the courage to stand up to Boris Johnson.
Read the full article here:
Oliver Dowden’s resignation is the real body blow to Boris Johnson | Andrew Grice
There is little confidence in Toryland that Johnson can recover; his departure looks only a matter of time, writes Andrew Grice
Wakefield victory is ‘stunning’, says Nandy
The shadow levelling-up secretary has praised her party’s “stunning” victory in the Wakefield by-election, singling out Keir Starmer for making Labour more electable.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s World at One programme, Lisa Nandy said: “What’s being lost in all of this is that Wakefield is not a safe Labour seat.”
“We’ll never be complacent ... but this is a stunning result for the Labour Party and it really has lifted us right across the country,” she added.
Ms Nandy also said the party’s leader has “sorted out the problems in the party, he’s persuaded people to have a fresh look at us”.
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