Conservatives face a “wipe out” of the general election and a decade in the desert unless they abandon Boris Johnson as leader, a former major donor has warned.
Financier Michael Torrey, who has given the party more than £ 300,000 since 2010, has said he will not make more donations unless Johnson is removed.
His comments come amid speculation that a vote of confidence in the prime minister could be announced as early as Monday, with Tories MPs voting in the coming days.
The chairman of the 1922 commission, Sir Graham Brady, must call a vote if 54 Tory MPs send him a letter requesting it.
About 17 lawmakers said publicly that they had sent letters, but more than 40 called for Johnson to leave. Some believe that Sir Graham already has the required 54 letters, but is waiting for the end of the platinum anniversary weekend before announcing it. The prime minister must win the support of 180 lawmakers – more than half of the 359-member parliamentary party – to keep his job.
Mr Torrey told the Sunday Times: “I have been a loyal and long-time donor, but I can only resume donations if there is an immediate change of leadership.
“And this must be now, before it is too late to avoid the well-deserved erasure of the next election, which has probably been in opposition for a decade.
But Transport Minister Grant Shaps said he did not expect a vote next week, but said he believed Mr Johnson would win it if he came.
Mr Schaps downplayed the significance of the booing addressed to the prime minister by crowds of platinum jubilee thanksgiving services on Friday.
Recalling the mockery of George Osborne at the 2012 Paralympics, he told BBC1’s Sunday Morning: “I remember whistling at the 2012 Olympics and that didn’t mean the election didn’t win in 2015. d.
Mr Schaps added: “Politicians are, by their very nature … of course, divided. That’s what politicians do. This is because we are arguing about different sides of the issue.
“You will always have people who approve and people who disapprove. This is the meaning of a free and democratic society. It is also the meaning of a monarchy, where everyone can unite and support the queen, regardless of their policies. Honestly, I think it demonstrates one of the beauties of our system.
Electoral guru Professor John Curtis of the University of Strathclyde said recent polls show that about three-quarters of voters – including half of those who voted for the Conservatives in 2019 – believe Mr Johnson lied about parties destroying the blockade of Downing Street 10.
Professor Curtis says the poll suggests the Conservatives are 20 points behind Labor in Wakefield ahead of the June 23 by-elections, which will be seen as a test of Mr Johnson’s popularity in the Red Wall seats in the Midlands and North. from Tori in 2019
He said six months after the first Partygate stories, there were no signs of easing public anger over the issue.
Prof. Curtis said the Conservatives must now accept that the prime minister’s efforts to explain and justify what happened at number 10 have failed.
“Now it is very, very unlikely that the public will ever come to the conclusion that what the prime minister did during the blockade with the various rallies was reasonable, not to mention within the law,” he told Times Radio.
“Therefore, the issue that the party has to face is what it needs to do about it.
It is possible that the public has moved away from Partygate until the elections, which are likely to take place in 2024, said Prof. Curtis.
But he added: “The alternative, of course, is that the Conservative Party’s brand – not to mention the prime minister’s popularity – has been so badly damaged that we are now talking about whether or not he will have confidence in other issues. , given that the public does not trust him on this. They may therefore conclude that it needs to be replaced. “
Prof. Curtis said: “The interesting thing here is that I think for the first time we have a situation where the personal actions and ethics of the Prime Minister are called into question. We don’t really have a historical precedent for where it will go.
“About half of the Conservative voters think he hasn’t told the truth, but not as many as half of the Conservative voters think he should resign. It is somewhere between a quarter and two fifths.
“Undoubtedly, there are voters who say he secured Brexit, he received calls just for Covid, he is dealing with the cost of living crisis, we must not get rid of the prime minister during Ukraine – all these considerations are there. .
“The problem is – at least for now – there are at least a small number of people who have voted for the Conservative Party who say, ‘This is a violator of the deal for me, so I don’t want to vote for the Conservatives again, so while Boris Johnson is the leader “.
“If you lose a quarter of the people who voted for you last time, you’re in trouble.
“In fact, at the moment, if you look at the level of support for conservatives among voters to leave, it seems that the party has lost the support of about one in three of those people who voted for Boris Johnson for Brexit in 2019. That’s terrible a lot of territory to return among the people who were essential to giving Boris Johnson his super majority in 2019.
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