BORIS Johnson made what will be seen either as a humiliating u-turn, or a realisation that his leadership bid is on temporary hold, as he urged the party last night to "get behind" Theresa May.
The Foreign Secretary used a WhatsApp message to appeal to Tories to "talk about nothing except policies".
Johnson said: "We have just had an election and people are fed up with this malarkey. Get behind the PM. Ordinary punters I have spoken to thought her speech was good and anyone can have a cold."
He told Tories to "circle the wagons, turn the fire on Corbyn and talk about nothing except our great policies and what we can do for the country".
Johnson's intervention came after he faced calls to be sacked for destabilising the party following his intervention on Brexit on the eve of conference and controversial remarks about Libya at a fringe event.
Other senior Tories were forced to intervene in support of the Prime Minister last night as the party continued to face meltdown following a plot to oust her from Downing Street.
Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson was part of concerted moves to close ranks around the embattled Prime Minister after her troubled party conference speech.
Davidson said critics should "put up" and "shut up", adding that the calls were not led by anyone "serious".
The dramatic interventions came after former party chairman Grant Shapps said about 30 Tory MPs backed his call for a leadership contest.
Davidson, like Johnson tipped as a potential successor to May, said that there were "an awful lot of people in our party who need to settle down".
The Scottish Tory leader said: "I think if the plotters were serious, they would be led by someone a bit more serious," she said.
"One of the irritants over the last couple of days, for me, particularly as a woman, is this idea that all of these men are supposed to be making decisions on Theresa May's behalf," she said.
"Well, have they actually met Theresa May? This is a woman with agency, with grit, with determination. I backed her in the leadership, I back her now and I will back her in the future."
Pressure on the Prime Minister has grown since her Tory party conference speech was plagued by a series of mishaps, as she struggled with a persistent cough and was interrupted by a prankster.
Shapps, who was co-chair of the party between 2012 and 2015, said he believed it was "time we actually tackle this issue of leadership" adding that "so do many colleagues".
Former cabinet minister John Redwood – who ran unsuccessfully against John Major – gave his support to May.
The prominent Brexit-backer said: "I do not support Mr Shapps in his view that we need a Conservative leadership election."
He also cast doubt about the level of support Shapps claimed to have, pointing out they had "not spoken out or let their names be known," he said.
"Unusually reticent rebels? Or they don't exist," he said.
George Freeman, chairman of the Prime Minister's policy board, suggested that Mrs May should bring some fresh blood into her Government from the ranks of recently-elected MPs.
He said the "new generation of Conservative MPs" elected in 2010, 2015 and 2017 were "much more dynamic and energised and open to the way that we go about doing politics".
Former minister Ed Vaizey was the first Tory MP to publicly suggest May should quit last week.
He said: "I think there will be quite a few people who will now be pretty firmly of the view that she should resign."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel