In the name of God go, MP tells Boris Johnson

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World

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Former cabinet minister David Davis has joined calls for Boris Johnson to stand down, telling the prime minister: “In the name of God, go.”

He said the PM had failed to take responsibility for his actions over lockdown parties in Downing Street.

Mr Davis’s remarks came after backbench Tory MP Christian Wakeford defected to Labour, minutes before Prime Minister’s Questions began.

The PM batted away repeated calls to quit during the stormy Commons session.

Mr Davis’s criticisms and Mr Wakeford’s defection come as Mr Johnson is fighting to save his premiership after admitting attending a drinks event in Downing Street during the first lockdown.

So far six Conservative MPs have publicly declared no confidence in the PM, but more are thought to have submitted letters to Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the backbench 1922 committee, who organises Tory leadership contests.

There are claims that the threshold of 54 letters needed to trigger a no-confidence vote and leadership election could soon be reached, but no official word has been given.

Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross, one of those to call for Mr Johnson to quit, said a no-confidence vote was “near” and “getting closer”.

But a former cabinet minister told the BBC that Mr Wakeford’s defection seemed to be backfiring, as his actions had “provided an alternative target for rage” among Tory MPs.

Another Tory MP said he had been “let down by a good friend” and that his now ex-colleague had “unified the party”.

The prime minister is urging fellow Conservatives not to pass judgement on him until a report on parties at No 10, by senior civil servant Sue Gray, comes out next week.

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Downing Street party row

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In his letter to Mr Johnson, Bury South MP Mr Wakeford said: “You and the Conservative Party as a whole have shown themselves incapable of offering the leadership and government this country deserves.”

At Prime Minister’s Questions, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer welcomed Mr Wakeford to his party and repeated his call for Mr Johnson to quit, saying his “absurd and unreliable defences” of No 10 parties were unravelling.

But the most dramatic intervention came towards the end of the session, when Mr Davis told Mr Johnson he had spent weeks defending him from “angry constituents”.

He added: “I expect my leaders to shoulder the responsibility for the actions they take. Yesterday he did the opposite of that. So, I will remind him of a quotation which may be familiar to his ear: Leopold Amery to Neville Chamberlain.

“‘You have sat too long here for any good you have been doing. In the name of God, go.'”

The PM said he did not “know what [Mr Davis] is talking about”, but insisted he took “full responsibility for everything done in this government and throughout the pandemic”.

Speaking afterwards to the BBC, Mr Davis, the former Brexit secretary, said he had supported Mr Johnson until his interview on Tuesday, when he said he had not been told a party in the Downing Street garden risked breaking Covid rules.

Jake Berry, chairman of the Northern Research Group of Red Wall Tory MPs, most of whom won their seats from Labour at the 2019 general election, said he thought Mr Davis had “misjudged the mood of colleagues”.

But he added that “the next few weeks and months” would prove whether the former minister was correct.

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Analysis box by Laura Kuenssberg, political editor

A defection is a rare thing. A coup for Labour. A temporary triumph for Sir Keir Starmer.

There were whispers that Christian Wakeford was spotted talking to a former Labour MP over drinks this week, a few murmurs that he might be thinking about taking such a dramatic step.

But for it to happen, to see that crossing the floor moment, is unusual indeed.

Traditionally a defection can in fact unite the party who the MP has left behind – it’s so drastic.

But the Wakeford departure adds to the real sense of chaos in Westminster. And the reaction among his now former colleagues elected in 2019 may not follow that traditional path.

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Who else has used the phrase, ‘In the name of God, go’?

The phrase was first used by Oliver Cromwell in the 17th Century.

Conservative MP Leo Amery used the words during a Commons debate in 1940, following the UK’s failed campaign against Nazi forces in Norway. Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain resigned two days later.

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Ms Gray’s team are talking to the PM’s former aide Dominic Cummings, who says he warned the PM that the Downing Street garden party in May 2020 risked breaking Covid rules.

Mr Cummings has also accused Mr Johnson – who insists he thought the party was a work event – of misleading Parliament.

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In the Commons. Sir Keir attempted to compare the behaviour of the Queen sitting alone at the funeral of the Duke of Edinburgh to the prime minister’s behaviour.

But Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle warned him that discussions about the Royal Family were not matters for MPs to get into and stopped the prime minister from needing to answer the claims.

The SNP’s Westminster leader Ian Blackford said: “The prime minister is taking the public for fools. Nobody believes him. Will the prime minister finally take responsibility? Resign, go, prime minister.”

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