BORIS JOHNSON could face a party rebellion as Tory MPs admit there has been a serious public backlash over the Prime Minister’s decision to support Dominic Cummings.
Mr Johnson said he regretted the confusion over the matter while supporting his senior aide. Due to his support for Dominic Cummings, several MPs from all sides of the party have stated there could be serious repercussions. Such is the concern over the damage to the Conservative Party that some MPs from newly won Blue Wall seats fear there could be serious consequences to the partys reputation.
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One Tory MP told The Daily Telegraph: “The response has been massive.
“I’ve had hundreds of emails from constituents, and about a third look as though they have been coordinated by Labour, two per cent are from people who think it’s a media witch-hunt and the rest are from normal down to earth people who are furious at what’s gone on.
“We need to make Boris change his mind. The situation is still recoverable, but the more the patient bleeds the harder it will be to rescue it.
“People are absolutely livid about this. The fact is that Number 10 misjudged the public mood.
“They thought no one would care about this because they never thought people would stick to the lockdown rules anyway, but the fact is people have, and Boris looks tin-eared.
“None of us can understand why Boris didn’t launch an inquiry to buy himself some time.
“That way he and other ministers would have been able to say they couldn’t discuss it because it was the subject of an inquiry, but now it feels as though Dom will have to go by the end of the week.
“A lot of people are hoping this will get sorted out in the next 24 hours, but if it doesn’t there are an awful lot more backbench MPs who will go public.
“They just can’t afford not to take a stand as they have an electorate to answer to.
“If the rebellion grows to 40 or 50 MPs, it becomes a problem for Boris because that is his majority gone.”
Such is the dire situation for the party, one MP insisted it could have similar consequences to Black Wednesday in 1992.
Black Wednesday was whereby the Tory party was forced to remove the pound from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism after a failed attempt to keep the pound above the lower currency exchange limit.
By doing so, the Tory partys reputation was seriously damaged.
Another MP said: “The party’s response was awful. It looked really callous.
“The public just turned against us for the next four years. This feels like that.
“The reason why Boris was so popular is because people thought he related to working people.
“No one cares if he’s posh. It’s about do you have empathy and can you relate?”
A third MP also said: “Whenever things flare up, it is usually one or other wing of the party. This one is the whole lot of us.
“This causes us no end of unnecessary grief.”
On Monday, the senior adviser admitted he did not regret his decision to drive to County Durham in March.
Although the public were told to Stay at Home as the lockdown was put in place, Mr Cummings insisted he had acted reasonably and legally.
Despite some MPs calling for the adviser to resign, Cabinet Ministers such as Michael Gove and Dominic Raab have both supported the aide.
However, Mr Johnson is expected to face questions from the Liaison committee which he is due to face on Wednesday.
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