Two senior Conservative party figures said Transport Secretary Grant Shapps and Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis would also be on the team. A Tory official said ministers “believe the situation is now unacceptable and intend to tell the Prime Minister that he must now resign”. Zahawi’s intervention will come less than 24 hours after Johnson appointed him chancellor following the resignation of Rishi Sunak and more than 30 cabinet resignations. Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng has also lost confidence in Johnson and has told the leader he must resign, his allies said. Earlier on Wednesday Johnson was told by senior cabinet minister Michael Gove that his prime ministership was over. Two senior government officials told the Financial Times that the growth secretary visited Johnson in Downing Street on Wednesday to tell him his time leading the party was up. A person with knowledge of the conversation said: “Michael basically told him it’s time to go, it’s over.” His intervention on Wednesday came after a devastating criticism of Johnson by former health secretary Sajid Javid, who told MPs in a resignation statement that “the problem starts at the top” with the prime minister. Javid triggered a string of ministerial resignations when he quit on Tuesday afternoon, leaving Johnson fighting for his political survival. Javid said he had been assured “at the highest level” that there were no Downing Street parties during the Covid-19 restrictions, only to discover that this was untrue. More recently, he said, the government had once again lacked “truth and integrity” about allegations of sexual harassment by Chris Pincher, the former deputy chief whip. “At some point we have to come to the conclusion that enough is enough,” Javid told MPs. “I think that point is now.” Javid said it was unfair to force ministers to go on air to defend lines that did not “stand up” to scrutiny. “I’m afraid the reset button can only work so many times. There’s only so many times you can turn this machine off before you realize something’s wrong.”
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The executive of the 1922 committee of key Tory MPs will meet on Wednesday night to discuss whether to change party rules to allow another leadership challenge against Johnson. A senior member of the 1922 executive committee said “if more than half the MPs want the prime minister out, it is our job to facilitate his exit. We are definitely there or very close.” The MP added that Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 committee, would likely visit Johnson to tell him “the conflict is over” and threaten a rule change if the prime minister did not resign. “But we know Boris can try to get stuck and it’s going to get very messy.” Another member of the 1922 executive committee said that MPs wanted a leadership contest to begin as soon as possible. “Ideally we can get the first rounds [where MPs whittle down candidates to the final two] done before the summer break and have a new leader in place for the fall.” At least 37 members of Johnson’s government have resigned so far in the last 24 hours, just a month after the prime minister won a confidence vote of just 59%. Kemi Badenoch, Minister for Equalities and Communities, and Julia Lopez, Minister for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, have both resigned from their posts. Three deputy ministers – Neil O’Brien, Lee Rowley and Alex Burgart – also resigned, according to a letter of resignation signed by the five MPs. The letter said it had “become increasingly clear that the government cannot function given the issues that have come to light and the manner in which they have been dealt with”.
