A minister serving in Boris Johnson’s government wrote a secret letter of no confidence to oust him while remaning in Government, it has been revealed.
Lord Brady, former chairman of the 1922 Committee of Backbench Tory MPs, lifted the lid on how MPs moved against Mr Johnson as his administration was increasingly engulfed by scandal.
Cabinet, and other, ministers normally resign if they decide the Prime Minister should be replaced, as did Chancellor Rishi Sunak and Health Secretary Sajid Javid in July 2022.
But Sir Graham has revealed his surprise when he received a letter of no confidence in Mr Johnson from a minister still in his Government.
He told how the defection of Tory MP Christian Wakeford to Labour in January 2022 had boosted support for Mr Johnson but that some of this swiftly evaporated after the publication of the Sue Gray report into the “partygate scandal”.
In his memoirs, Sir Graham outlined how the number of letters of no confidence in the PM, which he kept secret inside a safe in his Commons office, tended to go up and down as MPs submitted them, but also withdrew then at times.
Once 15 per cent of the parliamentary party, 54 MPs during Mr Johnson’s premiership, had put in letters it would trigger a confidence vote.
After the publication of the Gray report, Sir Graham started to receive a “steady flow” of letters.
“One wag, writing on 2 February, asked, ‘Out of interest, are you going to allocate me a number?,” he said
“On the same day, I got the first letter I had ever received which was submitted by a serving minister.”
Around ten days later, the number of letters of no confidence was hovering around the 50 mark.
On February 24, Vladimir Putin’s army invaded Ukraine in a failed attempt to seize Kyiv within days.
In London, the revolt against Mr Johnson died down as he put Britain at the forefront of leading the West in supporting Ukraine.
In his book, Kingmaker, Secrets, Lies and the Truth about Five Prime Ministers, Lord Brady also:
* Revealed how he met an MI6 officer in Bangkok in the summer of 2022 amid fears of a foreign plot to sway the Tory election which saw Liz Truss become Prime Minister.
* Told how Ms Truss blamed Kwasi Kwarteng, who she had sacked as Chancellor, for the economic chaos unleashed in Britain after his September 2022 “mini Budget.” He recalls her saying: “I sacked Kwasi because he let me down...he didn’t do the job of Chancellor.”
* Claimed Mr Johnson told him: “It’s what she wants,” when the Queen sat alone in April 2021 at the Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral service as she would not have wished to have been treated differently than her subjects as Britain was under Covid lockdowns and restrictions.
* Recalls how PM Theresa May “with tears in her eyes” as she faced a growing revolt, told him: “I’ve done everything! I even promised to resign if they would vote through the Withdrawal Agreement.”
* Said Romford MP Andrew Rosindell once brought Hi-de-Hi! actress Su Pollard to a No10 reception.
