Live: Boris Johnson under pressure as Government resignations continue

All the latest updates as the Prime Minister fights for his position amid criticism of the Chris Pincher affair.

06 July 2022

Prime Minister Boris Johnson is under increasing pressure as ministers and aides continue to quit his Government in protest at his leadership.

Robin Walker and Will Quince resigned as schools standards minister and children and families minister respectively on Wednesday morning, shortly followed by Treasury minister John Glen.

The crisis at the heart of Mr Johnson’s administration started to unfold on Tuesday evening when chancellor Rishi Sunak and health secretary Sajid Javid quit their posts, to be replaced by Nadhim Zahawi and Steve Barclay.

Here are the latest updates:

11.17am

11.15am

Tory peer and pollster Lord Hayward said there is “absolutely no doubt” Boris Johnson has lost his “curious” attachment to the public.

He told Sky News: “I think this whole row is damaging the Conservative Party very badly.

“I’m not a great fan of snap polls, but YouGov’s poll overnight is absolutely clear – 54% of people who voted Conservative in 2019 are saying that Boris Johnson should go and just over 20% are saying he should stay.

“So there is absolutely no doubt that Boris Johnson, who had this curious built-in attachment to the public at large, has lost that link and lost it very clearly indeed.”

11.14am

Kensington MP Felicity Buchan has resigned from her role as parliamentary private secretary to the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

In a letter posted to Twitter, she said “the current situation is untenable”.

11.11am

Treasury minister John Glen has resigned, telling Mr Johnson “I can no longer reconcile my commitment to the role” with “the complete lack of confidence I have in your continuing leadership of our country”.

10.56am

10.41am

New Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi called for unity in the Conservative Party.

10.39am

Sir David Lidington added that the Government is at risk of losing the support of the electorate following the latest issues faced by the Conservative Party.

The former Cabinet Office minister told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “The problem with the impact of partygate, Pincher and so on, people stop me in the high street and actually say they’ve always been Conservative voters but they no longer feel that the Government speaks for them.

“It’s thinking about the interests of people in the Government, and in-fighting, not about putting the country first.

“I think the credibility of the Government has been much more seriously and deeply damaged than some of the people around the Prime Minister in No 10 seem to think at the moment.”

10.25am

10.18am

Lee Anderson, the Tory MP elected in 2019 for the Red Wall seat of Ashfield, questioned the Prime Minister’s integrity as he withdrew support for Mr Johnson.

“I have remained loyal to the Prime Minister since being elected in 2019,” he said.

“However my position has changed over the past few days since the incident which led to the deputy chief whip (Chris Pincher) losing the party whip.”

He said giving Mr Pincher the job, having been told about earlier inappropriate behaviour, was “not a good appointment” by Mr Johnson.

He highlighted the initial denial that the Prime Minister had been told about earlier allegations and then the change in the Government’s position to say Mr Johnson simply forgot.

“I cannot look myself in the mirror and accept this. It is my belief that our PM has got all the big decisions right and guided us through the most difficult time in my life time and I have always backed him to the hilt.

“That said, integrity should always come first and sadly this has not been the case over the past few days.”