Partygate: No Boris Johnson leadership vote next week, says Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab | Political news

The deputy prime minister has insisted there will be no Boris Johnson leadership vote next week, saying “the Westminster bubble has blown this thing away”.

Dominic Raab downplayed any threat to Mr Johnson’s job as prime minister as the number of Conservative MPs openly calling for him to leave rose to 41 following Sue Gray’s report on the parties breaking the lockdown in the UK. Number 10 and Whitehall.

When Sky News’ Kay Burley asked if there would be a leadership vote next week, as predicted by former leader William Hague, he said: “No. I think the Westminster bubble, the village, blows away. this and I’m not saying it’s not serious and significant but we’ve taken care of all those problems, the prime minister has taken care of all of them.

“There seems to be a lot of constructive commentary on this when really, when I’m talking to MPs and in the House of Commons about the issues I’m dealing with… they want to see us push the program forward. that agenda.

“Honestly, the votes of no confidence, the leadership contests, all of that is more than Westminster speaks to itself, not to the public, our voters and the vast majority of MPs respect, recognize and agree with that.”

John Stephenson became the 28th MP to call on Johnson to leave and revealed on Tuesday that he had sent a letter of no confidence in the Prime Minister to Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 Committee of Conservatives. .

A total of 54 letters – 15% of Tory MPs – need to be delivered to trigger a leadership vote, only Sir Graham knows how many have been sent.

Currently, the number of MPs who have publicly said they have sent a letter has not reached that threshold but more could have done so privately, as happened with Theresa May in 2018 when there were only 24 MPs. Doctors publicly said they had sent a letter but more than 48 needed were later.