A Tory minister asked hours after Rishi Sunak known as the election whether or not she could submit a letter of no confidence in him days before her departure from frontline politics, it has been claimed.
Dame Andrea Leadsom, a well being minister, reportedly posed the query at a behind-closed-doors assembly of Conservative MPs on Wednesday night time.
She subsequently confirmed in a letter to Mr Sunak on Friday night that she wouldn’t search re-election, bringing her 14-year parliamentary profession to an finish.
Dame Andrea didn’t deal with her reported points with the Prime Minister’s choice to name the election in her letter, as an alternative thanking him for having “faith” in her as a well being minister since he appointed her to his frontbench.
It got here amid rumours that Tory rebels are getting ready to launch one remaining bid to oust the Mr Sunak and cease the snap election.
Sky News reported that Dame Andrea, a former enterprise secretary beneath Boris Johnson, made the feedback on the 1922 Committee.
The backbench committee of MPs met on Wednesday night time simply after Mr Sunak delivered his speech in Downing Street unveiling the July 4 ballot.
Dame Andrea declined to remark, saying that “1922 Committee meetings are private”.
But it can come as a dangerous blow to the Prime Minister, whose choice to name the snap election has angered some Conservative MPs.
Steady drumbeat of MPs quitting
The variety of Tory MPs standing down in this Parliament has reached 76, surpassing the earlier document set in the run-up to Labour’s 1997 landslide.
It has meant that the start of the marketing campaign has been dominated by a gentle drumbeat of heavyweight Conservatives saying they’re quitting.
At the identical time, Tory rebels who tried to oust Mr Sunak earlier in the yr have been trying to attract help amongst MPs for a recent effort.
They are billing a last-ditch try and take away him as Conservative chief as the one technique to cease the election and a mauling by the hands of Labour.
Although the plot is believed prone to fail, it demonstrates how the Prime Minister angered his personal backbenchers together with his shock announcement of a snap contest.
Even his personal Cabinet was left in the darkish over his intentions to go to the general public on July 4, regardless of the actual fact the Conservatives are 20 factors behind in the polls.