Conservative MPs have been warned that they risk losing their seats if they give up Boris Johnson as leader.
Despite the prime minister’s current unpopularity, which prompted him to be booed by voters when he arrived for the platinum anniversary service at St. Paul’s Cathedral on Friday, a government source said he remained “an election-winning machine”.
Mr Johnson is fighting against demands from his own lawmakers for a vote of confidence in his leadership, which could come as early as next week.
More than 40 Tory MPs have openly called for his removal, with at least 17 sending no-confidence letters to 1922 commission chairman Sir Graham Brady, who must vote if the total reaches 54.
Last month’s release of Sue Gray’s report on the Partygate scandal sparked a wave of new letters, and Johnson’s supporters fear that pressure to remove him will intensify if the Tories lose the June 23 by-elections in Wakefield and Tiverton & Honiton.
Speaking to newspaper i, a senior government source said none of the potential alternative Tory leaders had the same ability as Mr Johnson to attract voters to the Red Wall constituencies in the Midlands and North seized by Labor in 2019. .
“If you throw Boris, you will tear down the Red Wall,” the source said. “He is the only leader who holds her together.
“The mandate that Boris received in 2019 was huge and it reaches parts of the country that no conservative leader has in a generation.
“It’s a huge, huge call, two years after the election, to tell a machine that wins the election that time is up.
The source also said Mr Johnson was in a better position than his potential deputies to traditionally defend Tory seats in the Blue Wall under pressure from Liberal Democrats in the south and countryside.
“Boris has shown that he understands the traditional sensitivity of the Blue Wall and it will be important for him to want to prove and show this in time,” the source said.
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