Close allies of Boris Johnson’s have broken their silence to deny that MP resignations on Friday and Saturday were deliberately coordinated to hurt Rishi Sunak’s No 10 administration.
The Express has spoken to three inside members of Mr Johnson’s camp, who have denied any such deliberate plans amid external speculation.
Since Friday, commentary in the media has been rife about whether any further resignations can be expected, including that of former COP26 President Sir Alok Sharma.
However, a source has told the Express that Sir Alok will now be watching the fallout and realising that if he does want to be elevated to the Lords he’s better off staying as a Tory MP and negotiating from a position of strength.
The source added Nadine Dorries and Nigel Adams’s cards “haven’t been particularly well played”.
READ MORE: Sunak hits out and says ‘Boris asked me to do something I wasn’t prepared to do’
Another source from the Boris Johnson camp formally denied any coordinated plan.
Speculation of further resignations was heightened on Friday evening, with Nigel Adams quitting on Saturday morning.
Further allegations of planned resignations by Nadhim Zahawi and Priti Patel were quickly denied by both parties.
Mr Zahawi tweeted: “Any speculation that I might be stepping down from my seat is untrue. The people of Stratford-on-Avon, and the country, want the Government to get on with delivering for Britain, I will be continuing to support the Government from the Conservative benches in the House of Commons.”
Sources close to Mrs Patel said she never intended to resign, telling friends she “was always to stay on and fight for the party grassroots”.
Whether Mr Zahawi and Sir Alok initially planned on resigning, only to get cold feet at the last minute, will remain the subject of Westminster speculation.
A third source close to Mr Johnson said Rishi Sunak had made a gross miscalculation in his handling of Boris Johnson and his four MP nominations for the Lords, saying he should have expected resignations as a result of his politicking.
“If your employer kicks you in the balls you don’t stick around and ask for him to do it again.”
However, they added they also had not been clued into any coordinated plan to quit en masse to hurt Mr Sunak’s Government.
They also speculated that if the likes of Sir Alok Sharma were to resign with the explicit desire to damage Mr Sunak, they would wait until the writs for the other by-elections had been moved by the Government in order to ensure their by-election happened on a different day and draw out the pain.
Despite the frenzied debate around whether Boris Johnson will return as an MP, a friend of the former PM’s said that while it makes Mr Johnson’s after-dinner speaking career “more commercially viable” if he lets the debate run on, he believes Mr Johnson’s parliamentary career is now over.
They added Mr Johnson will likely spend the rest of his political career helping friendly MPs campaign in the red wall where he will continue to be “mobbed”, as well as making high-profile interventions from outside parliament every so often.
Mr Johnson will also be deified like Mrs Thatcher among the Conservative party’s membership, the ally predicted, and like the Tories’ most popular leader will become an “ageing diva”.
Sir Alok Sharma was approached for comment.
