‘Boris is in danger’: Senior Tory MP Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown warns Prime Minister will face a leadership challenge next year unless he stabilises his premiership after HUGE revolt over Covid passes
- Tory MP Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown is a member of 1922 Committee executive
- He said Boris Johnson is ‘in danger’ after major Tory revolt over Covid passes
- He said Mr Johnson must improve leadership or he could face Tory challenge
A senior Tory MP has warned Boris Johnson he will face a leadership challenge next year unless the Prime Minister stabilises his premiership after he suffered a huge revolt over Covid passes.
The House of Commons voted by 369 to 126 in favour of Mr Johnson’s plan to make the documents mandatory for nightclubs and other large venues in England.
But 98 Conservative MPs rebelled to vote against the measure, inflicting a hammer blow on Mr Johnson’s authority.
Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, the treasurer of the 1922 Committee of Tory MPs, said this evening that the vote showed there is a ‘major division’ within the Conservative Party and ‘we all know what happens to disunited parties’.
Sir Geoffrey said there must be a ‘major change’ in the way Mr Johnson leads the Government, as the backbencher said the PM ‘has got to now be in some danger and he has got to realise that’.
The MP said that unless Mr Johnson gets his leadership back on track then ‘some members of the party will be thinking to themselves we have got to have a change’ with a leadership contest ‘on the cards’ next year.
Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, the treasurer of the 1922 Committee of Tory MPs, said this evening that the vote showed there is a ‘major division’ within the Conservative Party and ‘we all know what happens to disunited parties’
Sir Geoffrey said there must be a ‘major change’ in the way Mr Johnson leads the Government, as the backbencher said the PM ‘has got to now be in some danger and he has got to realise that’
Mr Johnson had addressed the 1922 Committee before the vote as he tried to convince Tory MPs to back his plans.
And he had been individually speaking to those who had publicly said they would oppose the measure earlier in the day.
Sir Geoffrey, who was one of the 98 Tories to vote against the PM, said: ‘I think now the Prime Minister has got to think very carefully about how he is going to reset his performance to actually govern with a united party because we all know what happens to disunited parties.
‘I think he can do it but it is going to involve a major change of the way he does things and consults us basically.’
Sir Geoffrey said the PM ‘has got to realise that he has got to consult his party properly before bringing these sorts of measures to the Commons’.
Asked how much danger the PM is in, Sir Geoffrey said: ‘He has got to now be in some danger and he has got to realise that because if he doesn’t raise that then he will be in much bigger danger.’
Asked what that means for Mr Johnson, the MP said: ‘If this goes on, we have had a very bad month in the last month, I think some members of the party will be thinking to themselves we have got to have a change.
‘But we are not there yet and I am still with him, I am still backing him, but he has got to change.’
Sir Geoffrey said he is not yet at the point of sending a letter of no confidence in Mr Johnson to 1922 Committee chairman Sir Graham Brady.
Asked if some of his colleagues are, he replied: ‘Well, I haven’t had anybody who has openly said to me that they are going to put letters in and I don’t know because Sir Graham is a paragon of discretion and he won’t even tell me as a fellow member of the 22 committee.’
Sir Geoffrey said the PM could face a leadership challenge next year if he does not change tack.
‘I think that has got to be on the cards and he has got to realise that and he has got to change,’ he said.
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