Rebel Tories don't seem to be giving up on the push to oust Boris Johnson, on track to get elected to the 1922 Committee responsible for party leadership votes and change its rules, The Telegraph reported.
According to the report, those who want Johnson out seek election to 18 senior posts on the 1922 Committee so that they can change the rule that protects the embattled prime minister from another leadership vote for a year. The regulations prohibiting a new vote can be changed by a simple majority of 10 out of 18.
“We could be heading into a world where the situation is beyond a joke," one of the rebel ministers told The Telegraph. "At that point, you need officers who are willing to say: ‘Enough’s enough.’”
The plans come hot on the heels of the Tories' historic by-election loss, with the Liberal Democrats claiming Tiverton and Honiton, overturning the 24,000 Tory majority, and the Labour securing the Wakefield seat.
In the wake of the double defeat, Conservative Party Chairman Oliver Dowden has stepped down, telling Johnson in his resignation letter that someone must take responsibility for the party's election failure. On Thursday, new calls for Johnson's resignation came from two former Tory leaders, Lord Howard and Lord Hague.
"I think the party and even more importantly the country would now be better off under new leadership," Howard said of the embattled prime minister.
Johnson, however, is not willing to surrender to these calls, with his close allies telling the Telegraph that one will have to "drag him out [from office] by his fingernails".
“No doubt people will continue to beat me up and say this or that and to attack me," Johnson himself said. “That's fine, that’s quite right, that is the job of politicians. In the end voters, journalists, they have no one else to make their complaints to. I have to take that. But I also have to get on with the job of delivering for the people of this country and that’s what I was elected to do.”
Calls for the prime minister to resign continue in the wake of Johnson being in hot water over the "partygate" scandal. It is suspected that he lied to Parliament about his involvement in the coronavirus lockdown parties in Downing Street, with critics accusing him of failing to address the illegal partying properly.
Johnson weathered the recent no-confidence vote with 211 fellow Conservative MPs siding with him, but 148 Tories (41%) voted to remove him from his position.