Boris Johnson issued an eleventh-hour appeal to Tory MPs to back him in a crunch vote on his leadership on Monday night.
The Prime Minister wrote to Conservative parliamentarians as he battled to stay in No10 after at least 54 demanded a vote on his leadership. He called for the backing of MPs so he could “draw a line” under the partygate scandal which has rocked the Government and take forward the Conservatives as “one united party”.
But he suffered a major blow shortly before 11am when former Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, a contender to take over from Mr Johnson if he is toppled, broke cover to say that he would be voting “for change”.
He argued that the current Government was “not offering the integrity, competence and vision necessary to unleash the enormous potential of our country”.
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