Andrea Leadsom condemns Boris Johnson’s ‘unacceptable failings of leadership’ – UK politics live

The former foreign secretary William Hague has said the prime minister is “in real trouble” and that Tory MPs are “moving towards having a ballot” on his leadership.

Allies of Boris Johnson had been hopeful he had escaped unscathed following a relatively muted initial response to Gray’s report last week, PA News reports, but Lord Hague said it was proving to be “one of those sort of slow-fuse explosions in politics”.

He told Times Radio:

It’s still going along. A lot of people misread it really, the events of last week as meaning the trouble is over, Boris is free and that’s actually not the mood in the Conservative party, which is very, very troubled about the contents of that report.

So I think the Conservative party will need to resolve this one way or another, obviously because to be an effective party they either need to rally behind the prime minister they’ve got, or they need to decide to force him out.

I think they’re moving towards either next week or around the end of June, they are moving towards having a ballot, it looks like that.

The former education secretary Justine Greening said the prime minister needed to “get a grip or get out”, adding there was a “real jitteriness” among Conservative MPs.

Greening, who was among 21 pro-Remain rebels thrown out of the party by Johnson and is now no longer an MP, likened Johnson’s position to that of Theresa May when she was under fire from Tory Brexiteers.

She told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme:

There is a real jitteriness around the parliamentary party of following a prime minister who isn’t really setting out a clear plan on necessarily where he wants to lead the country.

We have been here before with Theresa May. The reality is all prime ministers either have to get a grip or get out. That is a political rule that even Boris Johnson will need to follow.”

A steady stream of backbenchers have called on Johnson to go after Gray’s report laid bare a hard-drinking culture at the heart of government while raising renewed claims he misled Parliament.

Under party rules, the chairman of the backbench 1922 Committee, Sir Graham Brady, must call a vote of confidence in Johnson’s leadership if 54 Tory MPs – 15% of the parliamentary party – submit a letter calling for one.

So far, more than 25 MPs have publicly called on the prime minister to stand down – although not all of them have said whether they have written to Brady.

However, it is also widely believed in Westminster that a number of others have put in letters without declaring their intentions amid speculation the tally is approaching the total needed to trigger a vote.