Tory minister weighs up lying to public over no-confidence vote in Boris Johnson

In the wake of the Sue Gray report, a vote of no confidence is looking increasingly likely with more than 45 Tory MPs publicly declaring their lack of trust in the Prime Minister.

A total of 54 letters must be sent to 1922 Committee chair Sir Graham Brady to trigger the ballot, but it is not clear how many have been submitted.

Speaking to The Times, one anonymous Tory minister said he was struggling with his conscience regarding the vote.

He said: "I can live with sending out emails where I contort myself into evermore elaborate positions saying why I don’t think this is a resigning matter, because that’s politics – your integrity is chipped away marginally for the greater good.

“But if those letters do go in, I have no choice but to make a decision.

“But I just don’t know if I can vote confidence in him. I haven’t had any confidence in him for a long time, but I never thought we’d get a confidence vote.

“And then there’s whether I can lie in public and I say I voted confidence. I don’t know whether I can.

“There’s others on the payroll who feel the same, they are just more reconciled to lying about it.”

It comes after a Church of England bishop joined calls for Johnson to resign, saying he “obviously” lied over lockdown parties in Downing Street.

The Rt Rev Dr Alan Wilson, the Bishop of Buckingham, said the Prime Minister’s claims he did not realise what was going on were “nonsense” and that the UK needed a leader it could trust.

His intervention came on a day where Johnson was booed by some in the crowd as he arrived with his wife, Carrie, to attend the national service of thanksgiving for the Queen at St Paul’s Cathedral.

Tory MPs who have been pressing for the Prime Minister to stand down following the final report by Sue Gray into lockdown violations in Whitehall appear to have decided to stay quiet during the Platinum Jubilee celebrations.

But asked on Times Radio if Johnson should resign, Dr Wilson said: “The only answer is yes. I’m an Army baby and what they used to say in the Army was you can trust anybody, but you can’t trust a liar.

“In all sorts of contexts, you have to be able to trust the people who lead you, who represent you.”

He said the Prime Minister’s excuses – “oh I didn’t realise, I was ambushed by a cake” – were clearly nonsense and that he was “obviously” an out and out liar.

“Actually, you can see it from a mile off, but it’s all nonsense. And most ordinary people realise it’s all nonsense. It’s not the parties actually. It’s the lying. I think that’s the problem,” Dr Wilson said.

“I mean, everybody makes mistakes. And I think people are very tolerant about that. But I think it’s very difficult to trust a liar.”

Allies of the Prime Minister, including Home Secretary Priti Patel, have been urging the rebels to back off a no-confidence vote saying the UK would not thank them for turning in on themselves at a time when people are struggling with a cost of living crisis.

However, some observers at Westminster have predicted that a challenge could come as early as next week, with the former party leader, Lord Hague of Richmond warning that was Johnson was in “real trouble”.

Even if the 54 tally is not reached in the coming week, the Tories are facing a pair of difficult by-elections in Wakefield and Tiverton and Honiton later in the month which could be the trigger for a new tranche of letters if they are defeated.