Partygate ‘corroding Conservatives like battery acid’, rebel Tory MP warns

Getting rid of leader always ‘best done quickly’, says Andrew Mitchell

Boris Johnson’s partygate debacle is more damaging than the expenses scandal and is corroding the Conservatives “like battery acid”, a former cabinet minister has said.

Tory MP Andrew Mitchell – who announced in the Commons on Monday that he wanted Mr Johnson to go – said it was “a crisis that is not going to go away” and is “doing very great damage to the party”.

The former chief whip told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “It is more corrosive in my judgement than the expenses scandal was and it will break the coalition that is the Conservative Party.”

He added: “This, like battery acid, is corroding the fabric of the Conservative Party … I do think that he needs to think very carefully whether remaining is the right thing for our country, whether it is the right thing for the Conservative Party.”

Although Mr Johnson appears to have calmed some wavering MPs at a meeting on Monday night, Mr Mitchell urged them to act – saying getting rid of a leader was “best done quickly”.

Leader of the Commons Jacob Rees-Mogg said he had not heard any calls for Mr Johnson to go at Monday night’s meeting – telling reporters the PM had “managed to maintain the support of the party pretty much throughout”.

There was no immediate sign of the flood of no-confidence letters to Sir Graham Brady, the chair of the backbench 1922 Committee, which would trigger a vote on Mr Johnson’s future if they pass the threshold of 54.

But Mr Mitchell said: “There’s a lot going on beneath the surface,” referring to the Mr’s Johnson’s meeting as a “showpiece” and “not really a reflection of what’s going on”.

The former minister accused Mr Johnson of running his government “like a medieval court” – ignoring traditional Whitehall structures and bodies like his National Security Council.

On the social gatherings now under investigation by the Metropolitan Police, Mr Mitchell added: “These sorts of things would never have happened under Margaret Thatcher. Can you imagine it happening under Ms [Theresa] May?”

Tory MP Pauline Latham, who has been scathing about gatherings at Downing Street, told BBC Derby that the promise of changes at No 10 were enough for her to maintain support for the prime minister “at the current time”.

But the backbencher suggested rebels could wait for “then right time” before sending in letters of no-confidence. “People write to me and say, ‘Put in letters to Sir Graham Brady’. There’s no point in doing that at this time,” she said on Tuesday.

“[Sir Graham] needs 54 letters. If he gets them, there will then be a vote of no confidence in the prime minister. This point of time he would win that vote of confidence which automatically give him a year.”

Ms Latham added: “What we need to do is wait and see. And when it’s the right time, when things change, if they need to change, then we can go for it. But it’s no good going [now] but you just get an extra year.”

Former Conservative leader William Hague also warned that the PM “should be very worried” about his fightback, as he criticised his apology to the Commons.

Writing in The Times, Mr Hague said Mr Johnson had plenty of time to craft a substantial response which gave his critics “pause for thought”, but instead “decided to do the minimum”.

It follows the resignation on Monday evening of Tory MP Angela Richardson, who quit as a ministerial aide to Michael Gove and shared her “deep disappointment” at the handling of the partygate row.