BORIS Johnson is facing more anger from his own MPs after snubbing a high-profile meeting of his ‘red wall’ Conservatives.

The Prime Minister had been to speak at the inaugural conference of the Northern Research Group (NRG) in Doncaster this afternoon.

The event was billed as “an important moment for the North of England, and a chance for us to come together to shape and define policies that will transform our great towns and cities”.

It was supposed to “discuss the opportunity that the levelling up agenda presents for our communities”.

However, after initially promising to address MPs, councillors, and hundreds of activists, the Prime Minister pulled out without an explanation.

Number 10 gave no reason for the decision by Mr Johnson, whose birthday is this weekend.

It later emerged Mr Johnson had made a second surprise visit to Kyiv for a meeting with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Chaired by the Rossendale and Darwen MP Jake Berry, the 80-strong NRG includes the many Tory MPs who were elected in previously Labour held seats in England in 2019.

The Guardian reported one Tory MP called the snub a “big error” by the PM.

The Daily Express, normally a big supporter of Mr Johnson, reported fury among delegates.

It quoted one Tory party member saying: Does the PM really care for the North when he doesn’t attend our levelling up conference?"

Another source close to the conference organisers called it "a f****** slap in the face for the Red Wall", while another simply said: "What a w***er."

Mr Berry told the Yorkshire Post: "It is an unfortunate thing but at the end of the day, he’s prime minister of our country and things come up.

"Are we disappointed? Absolutely, yes. Really disappointed.

"But we do have to accept that sometimes prime ministers do have to do other things than come to conferences.

"It is for Number 10 to explain where he is."

Earlier, Mr Berry has warned that Mr Johnson faced “political annihilation” if he fails to deliver on his levelling up agenda and cut taxes.

Referring to last week’s confidence vote in which Mr Johnson lost the support of 148 of the 359 Tory MPs, Mr Berry told the Daily Telegraph: “This week northern colleagues were hugely in support of the prime minister, with very, very few of the 80 against him.

“We’ve got to sell to the people of this country that we have a serious long term plan to change their economic prospects.

“And if we can do that, I firmly believe that people will absolutely back us again. 

“I’m sorry [but] incremental government, a little tweak here and a little tweak there, just simply isn’t going to cut it. The people voted for Boris because he was different.

He said that “the wind of change blows from the north” and that if the prime minister failed to follow through with the levelling-up agenda then “political annihilation lies ahead”.

Despite Mr Berry adding to the growing Tory calls for personal tax cuts, senior members of the government downplayed the prospect of any changes soon.

With the Bank of England foecasting 11 per cent inflation and rising interest rates, Rishi Sunak and Michael Gove warned against steps that could exacerbate inflation.

In a letter to Bank governor Andrew Bailey, the Chancellor stressed the measures he had taken on the cost-of-living crisis were “timely, targeted, and temporary to help households manage the squeeze on real incomes whilst not adding unnecessarily to inflation”.

Communities Secretary Mr Gove said he agreed with Mr Sunak that tax cuts should be shelved until inflation was brought down.

Asked if that would have to wait until 2024, he told TalkTV: “The Chancellor has the right policy… He can’t spend all of the public money that many would wish to and which, in a perfect world, we’d like to. You’ve got to make sure that you balance the books at a government level”.