BORIS Johnson aims to crush a Tory bid to topple him this week.
Amid talk of a no-confidence vote in the PM, ally Grant Shapps said Boris would survive.
Mr Johnson is braced for a move against him by angry Conservative backbenchers.
But he hopes to reset the agenda by focusing on health and with a new right-to-buy scheme for housing association tenants, unveiled in a key speech on Thursday.
Rebel MPs have shared a brutal briefing which warns the PM “is no longer an electoral asset and, if left in post, will lead the Party to a substantial defeat in 2024”.
They fear 160 Tory MPs could lose their seats with Boris still in No10 turning a “defeat into a landslide”.
The briefing says: “The entire purpose of the government now appears to be the sustenance of Boris Johnson as Prime Minister. MPs are having to defend the indefensible, not for the sake of the party, but for one man.
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“The only way to end this misery . . . is remove Boris Johnson as Prime Minister.”
A vote of no confidence can be held if 54 MPs put in letters to backbench bigwig Sir Graham Brady.
But the rebellion would need 180 to vote against Boris to succeed.
One rebel reckoned it was “too close to call”.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps, appearing on the BBC’s Sunday Morning programme, dismissed booing of Boris at Jubilee celebrations.
He said Conservative ministers were booed at the London Olympics in 2012 but still went on to win the general election in 2015.
Asked if Mr Johnson would win a vote of confidence, he insisted: “Yes, he will.”
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And Business Minister Paul Scully told the Andrew Neil Show on Channel 4: “If it does happen the Prime Minister, I know, will face it down.”
Meanwhile the Tories face defeat in Red Wall Wakefield’s by-election. A poll gives Labour a 20-point lead
Did you miss our previous article…
https://www.hellofaread.com/politics/pensioner-jokingly-guards-her-purse-from-chancellor-rishi-sunak/
