BORIS Johnson is facing a potential leadership contest as angry Tory MPs submit letters of no confidence in the Prime Minister.
According to the Sun, around a dozen parliamentarians have written to the chair of the influential 1922 committee for backbench Conservatives.
“There is real anger,” a senior MP told the paper. “He [Johnson] has until Spring to get back on track or he will be in real trouble."
Tory party rules dictate that a leadership contest is triggered if 15% of sitting MPs write no-confidence letters – which are submitted confidentially – to the 1922 committee. As it stands, 54 letters would need to be sent.
The Government is confident that it will not come to a vote at the moment, despite backbench anger over the Owen Paterson scandal and social care reforms.
"It will not get anywhere near the 50 letters you would need, but it does cause angst," a Conservative whip told the Telegraph. They added that there was an “assumption” that letters had already been sent, while another insist the “usual suspects” were behind the coup.
READ MORE: Are we seeing the beginning of the end of Prime Minister Boris Johnson?
It follows the Prime Minister’s disastrous speech to the CBI conference on Monday, which prompted questions about his wellbeing.
Downing Street and Deputy PM Dominic Raab have since been forced to insist that Johnson is well.
Raab told BBC News on Wednesday morning: “The Prime Minister is on great form. The reality is people speak about speeches in the Westminster village, the gossip and all the rest of it.
"It's the job of Westminster commentators to pick up on one anonymous source from wherever they found it to criticise the Government of the day, that's fine."
Johnson was widely criticised after raving about Peppa Pig World, referencing Lenin and comparing himself to Moses during the speech to business leaders on Monday. The PM also lost his place for an excruciating 20 seconds and made revving car noises.
Raab said he approved of the Tory leader’s "glowing references to Peppa Pig", adding: "The Prime Minister is an ebullient, bouncy, optimistic, Tiggerish character and he livens up his speeches in a way that few politicians past and present have done but actually there is a steeliness to him as a Prime Minister and indeed his team, and we work as a team."
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