BORIS Johnson’s plan to stay on as a “caretaker” Prime Minister until October has been blasted by his senior members of his party.

Ex-Science minister George Freeman said the Tory leader should “hand in the seals of office, apologise to Her Majesty” and allow her to appoint an interim Prime Minister. 

Former Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson described it as "arrant nonsense."

While John Major has written to the 1922 committee of Tory backbenchers saying it would “unwise and may be unsustainable” for Mr Johnson to remain in office.

In his letter, the former party leader said: “The proposal for the Prime Minister to remain in office – for up to three months – having lost the support of his Cabinet, his Government and his parliamentary party is unwise, and may be unsustainable.

“In such a circumstance the Prime Minister maintains the power of patronage and, of even greater concern, the power to make decisions which will affect the lives of those within all four nations of the United Kingdom and further afield.

“Some will argue that his new Cabinet will restrain him. I merely note that his previous Cabinet did not – or could not – do so.”

Sir John suggested Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab could be an acting prime minister until a new leader was elected.

Or he said Tory MPs could elect the new leader who would become Prime Minister, with party members then asked to endorse the decision.

Sir John said: “Neither of these options is ideal, but the interests of the country must be given priority over all else and, with so many long-term and critical issues before us, an imaginative response even at the risk of some bruised feelings within the party – is most definitely in the national interest.”

On Thursday morning, the Prime Minister finally announced that he would stand down. 

His resignation came after more than 50 of his MPs resigned their roles in government, including a number of cabinet ministers.

It may prove tricky for the Prime Minister to fill those vacancies. 

He will also need to work with the cabinet ministers who kept their jobs but called on him to quit, including Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi. 

Influential Tory backbencher Steve Baker, said that given many of those resigning had questioned the Prime Minister's integrity, it was hard to see how they could work for him again. 

George Freeman, who quit as science minister on Thursday morning, said: “We need Ministers back at their desks.

"Now PM has finally done the decent thing he needs to hand in the seals of office, apologise to Her Majesty, allow her to appoint a Caretaker under whom Ministers can serve, so the Conservative Party can choose a new leader properly.”

Baroness Davidson tweeted: "There's no way he can stay on until October. It's arrant nonsense to think he can. Someone needs to grip this."

On the Today programme David Davis, the former Brexit secretary and an arch critic of Mr Johnson, said he “not too bothered” about the prospect of the Prime Minister staying on over the summer.

Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said the notion of Mr Johnson staying on as PM until autumn was “far from ideal, and surely not sustainable.”